Next week Connecticut parents will see the third installment of the child tax credit.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped by Goodwin University on her way to Massachusetts to talk about what else they want to do to help children and families.
“It was either I’m going to pay this bill or buy some supplies and be without power,” Carmen Rodriguez of Hartford said.
Rodriguez has nine grandchildren. She’s raising five on her own, a year after her son was shot and killed.
“This just helped so much so we don’t have to put aside a bill and worry about a shutoff notice,” she said.
She bought iPads and school supplies to help her grandkids catch up with their education.
“The child tax credit is money in the pockets for families to meet their needs whatever they are for their children,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi says in the reconciliation bill they have hundreds of billions of dollars for child care tax credits.
This year the federal government did something different with the child tax credit and decided to start making payments in advance of tax season.
“The child tax credits being received by families are not taxable at all which is fantastic. These are pure tax credits,” Jay Sattler, managing tax principal at CLA, said.
Families started receiving $250 per month in July. Those payments will continue until the end of the year, unless a they decide to opt out and instead claim the money as part of their 2021 tax return.
“In many cases the credit is an additional $1,000 per child, or an additional $1,600 per child above and beyond the child tax credits that we’re all used to,” Sattler said.
Democrats in Congress, especially in Pelosi’s caucus, believe more needs to be done.
They’ve introduced a $450 billion child care proposal that will get its first hearing tomorrow.
“Because we have middle class families who cannot afford child care,” she said.
The bill includes free pre-kindergarten.
“The women of America took the biggest bite of the wormy apple called COVID in terms of losing their jobs. In terms of losing their jobs. Over 4 million women lost their jobs,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi says the women had to stay home and many lost their child care.
“Two million of them are still not able to go to work now that school has begun,” she said.
“One in five children in America lives in poverty, goes to sleep hungry at night. It’s intolerable in our country. That’s intolerable in our country,” Pelosi said. “And that’s what took me out of the kitchen to the Congress, from housewife to House speaker, for the children.”
But not everyone with children get the tax credit.
“They do have phase out limitations based on your family income,” Sattler said.
The full credit phases out for single filers with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 a year and married couples at $150,000 a year.
Pelosi said the income limits for future child care credits is still under debate as part of the reconciliation package.
