Association of the Implementation of Child Tax Credit Advance Payments With Food Insufficiency in US Households

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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused more than 50 million people to lose work, mostly in low-income households.1 Food insufficiency, when households sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, rose dramatically during the economic crisis spurred by the pandemic.2,3 Households with children were most affected—food insufficiency in households with children peaked at 18% in December 2020 and remained at 14% through June 2021, compared with approximately 3% among all households during 2019.4,5 Structural racism has shaped disparities in food insufficiency, with children in Black non-Hispanic (19.2%) and Hispanic (22.0%) households experiencing food insufficiency at almost triple the rate of children in White non-Hispanic households (7.0%) as of June 2021.3 This indicator of material hardship is associated with harm to child development and health, higher health care costs, and nearly $170 billion annually in lost productivity, educational performance, and food aid.6-9

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