After the expanded child tax credit ended, a pediatrician is seeing the effects

The child poverty rate in the U.S. more than doubled in a year.

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Child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled in a year, and we have a pretty clear idea what drove it: Congress let the expanded child tax credit expire.

It’s rare for a government policy to have an immediate and measurable impact on an individual or large portion of the population. But experts say the monthly payments to low-income families with children were doing just that.

After the expanded credit took effect, child poverty hit a historic low of 5.2% a year ago. New Census data shows it has since rocketed to 12.4%.

Doctors are seeing this play out in real time.

Who did we talk to? Pediatrician and researcher Megan Sandel, who treats kids at Boston Medical Center.

NPR spoke to her a couple of years ago while the monthly payments were still going out to families. Here’s what she said at the time:

I really have to call out the child tax credit. We have seen in the last six months families starting to get back on their feet. We have started to graduate kids from our Grow Clinic, finally. And a lot of that has to do with being able to have that consistent check every month that they know they’re getting.

And here’s what Sandel told All Things Considered’s Ari Shapiro this week:

We’re seeing families just under that enormous stress again. They are having to make really tough decisions. They have kids going back to school, and they don’t know if they can afford a backpack and that school uniform, and needing to make really difficult choices about whether or not they’re going to be able to actually be able to afford the food that their kids need to grow.

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