Child poverty increases more than two-fold

Census data shows that child poverty climbed from just over 5% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. The 2021 rate was an all-time low, and experts say that pandemic-era programs aimed at low-income families played a large role in the decline.

One such aid was the expansion of the Child Tax Credit passed in 2020.

“That legislation had increased the child tax credit from $2000 to $3600 for kids under the age of six and to $3000 for all other children.” said Bruce Lesley, the president of the non-profit First Focus on Children.

“One-third of the kids in this country were not receiving the full child tax credit prior to the enactment of the improved child tax credit in 2020,” he said. “So when that happened, child poverty plunged and it was the most significant drop in child poverty in this nation's history… Unfortunately, it only happened for one year.”

Mississippi's poverty rate sits right above 17% for 2022, with over 500,000 residents considered under the poverty threshold.

Carol Burnett is the director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, and she says that when federal policies like the Child Tax Credit expansion fall through, there is very little state-level policy to fill the gaps.

“There isn't a state safety net that's going to kick in and help out,” she said. “poor families will suffer the loss of those benefits more so than in states where a state might invest in programs that would kick in to replace the loss of those federal dollars.”

The nation's poverty rate as a whole rose 4% according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure.