Statement by William Arnone, CEO of the Academy
Last week’s historic initial payments of the new Child Tax Credits (CTC) to millions of U.S. households have been hailed as the boldest policy action to address economic insecurity in decades. The enactment of this path-breaking enhancement of the CTC is evidence that our nation has a real opportunity to enact transformative policies to provide economic security. We can build on current social insurance programs, including Unemployment Insurance and Social Security, which have provided protections against poverty to workers and seniors for many decades.
However, while the CTC payments are projected to have an enormous impact on child poverty, they remain temporary and need to be assessed within the broader framework of overall economic security in our nation.
As Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration assess the effectiveness of the temporary CTC, the Academy’s new fact sheet on the CTC explains permanent changes that policymakers might consider.
This work is part of the Academy’s multi-year Campaign for Pathways to Economic Security, which examines ways to strengthen the nation’s social insurance infrastructure within an Assured Income framework.
Since the National Academy of Social Insurance was founded in 1986, it has provided rigorous inquiry and insights into the functioning of our nation’s social insurance programs – Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation. Comprised of over 1,200 Members – the nation’s top experts in social insurance and related policies and programs – the Academy studies how social insurance can continue to meet the changing needs of American families, employees, and employers, including uninsured or underinsured economic risks. To learn more about the Academy’s work, please visit www.nasi.org, or follow @socialinsurance on Twitter.
See related news: News About NASI, Poverty and Income Assistance