Fewer groceries, more debt: Families brace for first month without child tax payments

The check would’ve arrived right around now, helping tide Melissa Roberts over until the end of the month. At $550, her monthly child tax payment wasn’t extravagant, she says, but enough to cover groceries and utilities.

Roberts, who lives in Marks, Miss., left her job as an insurance agent at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when her employer wouldn’t let her work from home. She’s applied for dozens of administrative and customer service positions since then but has yet to be hired.

“This tax credit is the only way...