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When Andrea (a pseudonym) was receiving the expanded Child Tax Credit last year, she would ask her three children what they wanted to eat. If they asked for a pizza, she would just order one. In early 2021, Democrats passed a change to the Child Tax Credit that offered more money to more parents and sent the payments out monthly. With a six-year-old, five-year-old and one-year-old, Andrea stood to receive as much as $850 a month from the credit.

But the expansion expired at the end of last year. President Joe Biden and a number of Democratic lawmakers sought to extend it, possibly even making it permanent, but negotiations over that policy and a number of others they were hoping to cram into a single package they could pass without Republican support ended abruptly at the end of last year when Senator Joe Manchin walked away. Democrats need every member of their party to vote yes, and his lack of support torpedoed the entire package and stopped the new payments from continuing.

Without an extension of the Child Tax Credit, Andrea is 鈥渂ack to the basic life of struggling now,鈥� she told financial services company Propel , even though she and her husband both work. After recently buying $400 worth of groceries she only had enough to give herself a bit of breakfast and dinner, so she skipped lunch. Now when her kids ask for pizza she has to tell them that she doesn鈥檛 have the money.

The Child Tax Credit expansion was a huge success. The monthly payments of up to $300 a month for children age six and under and $250 for older ones reduced the number of children in poverty by 3 million in just the first month alone. Hunger among households with children fell by 3 percentage points that month, but childless adults saw no change, meaning the payments were almost certainly the cause. The next month, the number of families with children who didn鈥檛 have enough to eat fell by 3.3. million. Parents who got the payments were also better able to afford other necessities like utilities, rent, and clothes.

But all of those trends have quickly reversed now that the payments are gone. In January of this year, the first month without them since last summer, the monthly child poverty rate from 12.1 percent to 17 percent, which is the highest rate since the end of 2020. That meant 3.7 million more children were thrust back into poverty.

The trend has only continued this year. While child poverty slightly between January and February, it was still at 16.7 percent, far higher than when the payments were being sent out. There were still 3.4 million more children in poverty that month than in December.

Behind those numbers is a lot more hardship and parents who are making difficult, sometimes impossible, choices. Holly (also a pseudonym), a mother of four children in Michigan, made 鈥渜uite a bit of progress鈥� on paying off bills that had piled up during the pandemic with her CTC payments, she told Propel. She and her husband 鈥渨eren鈥檛 so stressed. We weren鈥檛 afraid of things getting shut off.鈥� But then in January she stopped receiving them, and her water heater and van started acting up. She had to choose not to pay her car insurance in order to pay her heating bill. She鈥檚 started donating her plasma to be able to afford her heat.

Holly鈥檚 not alone. that in early March about 42 percent of parents said it was difficult to afford their usual household expenses, an increase from about 37 percent in December. According to by ParentsTogether Action in February, 57 percent said it had become more difficult to meet their family鈥檚 basic needs since the payments stopped. One in five said they hadn鈥檛 been able to afford those basics. 鈥淭he check offered stability, where we didn鈥檛 have to choose between a roof and utilities [and] having food and transportation too,鈥� Jenny of Wisconsin ParentsTogether. 鈥淣ow, without it, we鈥檙e back to sacrificing one need to maintain another.鈥�

Many other parents are facing heart wrenching choices. Over a third said they could no longer afford extracurricular activities for their children like sports teams or music classes. Many are struggling to afford rent or childcare. One in five can no longer afford enough food for their children.

Indeed, hunger is likely rising as families struggle to afford food. In , more than a third of parents said they were eating less than when they were receiving the CTC payments and a quarter said they were skipping meals. While parents often try to shield their children from hunger by eating less themselves, it鈥檚 likely to trickle down to their kids eventually. The parents in the Propel survey also reported struggling with other expenses. Over 40 percent said they didn鈥檛 pay their full utility bills in January.

The experience of receiving Child Tax Payments showed Gwendolyn, a single mother of three in Georgia, that the government 鈥渃ould help more if they wanted to,鈥� she told Propel. 鈥淚t鈥檚 truly up to them.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.