How expanded child tax credit aided these moms, changed economy

Many social welfare programs target specific forms of assistance for specific groups. The expanded child tax credit last year became a test of a different model: cash assistance for families, with no strings attached.

Over the summer, Danette Mahabeer had a problem familiar to most parents at one point or another: Her daughter, Soheila, was “sprouting,” Ms. Mahabeer says. “Growing out of everything she owned.”

Clothes that fit were suddenly tight. So was money. As for food, Sohelia was ravenous.

For Ms. Mahabeer, a single mother in Nashville, Tennessee, increased costs for food and clothing for a growing child posed real financial challenges. But from June to December, like clockwork, $300 appeared in her bank account. The Biden administration almost certainly hadn’t anticipated Soheila’s penchant for eating Cap’n Crunch multiple times a day – both as breakfast and an afternoon snack – but the checks were earmarked for those exact kinds of child-rearing expenses.