Improved Federal Child Tax Credit Helps Nearly 1.6 Million Children in Virginia, but More Outreach Is Needed

Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC) has been improved for 2021:

The monthly advance payments reached 1.56 million children in Virginia in August, with Virginia families receiving $388.1 million. According to recent Census Bureau surveys, these payments are correlated with improvements in respondents’ ability to afford basic expenses and have enough to eat.

In Virginia, about 30,000 more children received the credit in August than in July, which suggests more people heard about the credits and took action to qualify for monthly payments, such as filing their 2020 federal tax returns. However, more outreach is needed.

According to data from the U.S. Treasury Department, over 53,000 children in Virginia appear in federal health coverage records but could not be linked with a 2019 or 2020 federal tax return. In addition, over 30,000 newborns are expected to be born under Medicaid coverage, which means their families likely qualify for the CTC, according to recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The monthly payments are based on 2019 or 2020 federal tax information, so families that have not filed federal tax returns during those years, or whose children were born in the last year, may miss out on the payments unless additional action is taken. Because these numbers do not include children who lacked health insurance coverage during 2019 and 2020, the data likely represent an underestimate of children who may be missing out on the monthly payments.

Below, we present the data from the U.S. Treasury Department to show how many children may potentially miss out on the monthly CTC payments, unless further action is taken. The state and local governments, as well as local nonprofit agencies and other local organizations, can use these resources to focus outreach activities.

Data below includes:

For more information about the new Child Tax Credit and tax assistance resources, please visit: