DES MOINES, Iowa — More than 36 million families received a child tax credit payment last month. But now, those payments are done.
U.S. Treasury data estimates roughly 620,000 children in Iowa qualified for the payments.
"The extra money has enabled us just keep up with gas prices, food prices," said Brad Rozendaal.
Rozendaal and his wife have four children and were receiving $1,050 a month through the tax credits. While he and his wife work full time, the monthly payments helped them to keep up with rising costs.
"I don't think we'll struggle that much but I think that there's families that are working full time but make less than my wife and I do that are now dealing with higher prices that will struggle," Rozendaal said.
Emily Carpenter told Local 5 she lost her job due to the pandemic and has a 17-month-old and a three-month-old to take care of.
"Even with the child tax credit it's been so, so difficult being able to afford everything like bills, car payments, insurance, all of that," she said.
Carpenter has a new job, but was only receiving $300 for her 17-month-old.
"It doesn't do very much each month, but it kind of helped a little bit. I mean, to be able to pick up whatever bills that we were kind of short on for that month."
Now that the payments have run out, Carpenter knows she will have to make some tough decisions.
"It's a little concerning, honestly, I'm not gonna lie. We've been trying to budget a little more. And kind of figure out which things we can kind of either do away with or maybe downgrade like internet or something like that."
If you are looking for resources to help your family make ends meet click here.
On the Early Childhood Iowa site, you will find links to resources to agencies that can help with payments for things like food, heat, clothing, insurance, and more.
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