“The first of the 2021 child tax credits hit parents’ bank accounts in July— but not for everyone. For many of the parents who need it most, accessing the money may be more of a struggle.
That’s because the IRS — an agency that knows little about the lowest-income Americans, who often don’t file taxes — has been tasked with distributing the money, up to $300 per month per child.
On July 15, the day payments first went out, the IRS said it sent $15 billion to 35 million families, 86 percent of which was sent via direct deposit. That suggests that the vast majority of initial recipients were from families who earned income and filed taxes, many of them middle- or lower-middle-income parents whose names, addresses, and bank accountsare on file from tax returns.
More than 10 million children live in poverty, according to 2019 data from the US Census. Of those, the People’s Policy Project estimates that about 7 million live in non-filing households. (Because these families are, by definition, somewhat difficult to track, estimates vary: The Census Bureau says that 36 percent of children in poverty are from families that did not file taxes in 2019, including 55 percent of children in families in deep poverty.)
Most of these families haven’t signed up to get government stimulus checks, either, effectively leaving thousands of dollars from the government on the table over the past year. The IRS gathered informationon an additional720,000 children in non-filing households where the parents registered to receive stimulus payments.
But that still leaves millions of children whose parents are eligible for the child tax credit (CTC) but who are not on track to receive it.”
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““The North Star should be making this as automatic as possible so families don’t have to take affirmative steps to get the support they need.””
https://www.vox.com/22588701/child-tax-credit-accessibility-irs-portal