The Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity recently announced that three local organizations are among over a dozen others to receive a total of $192,000 in funding to conduct grassroots outreach to help Philly households claim the federal Child Tax Credit.
The Norris Square Community Alliance, Ceiba and the Impact Services Corporation, as beneficiaries of the grants, will help educate their communities about the credit and connect individuals with organizations that can help them claim the credit.
“The expanded Child Tax Credit could help more than 75,000 Philadelphians move out of poverty, so we invested $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan funding towards outreach and enrollment with community-based partners,” said Mayor Jim Kenney in a press release.
President Joe Biden’s America Rescue Plan, which was passed last March, increased the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $3,000 per child over the age of 6, and from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under the age of 6. While many families have received advance payments between July and December 2021, federal income taxes must be filed to claim the rest. Families that missed out on advance payments can claim the full credit they’re owed by filing with the IRS beginning on Jan. 24.
However, many households are at risk of missing out on the credit because they don’t file taxes due to a lack of sustainable income. City officials have estimated that if every eligible Philly resident receives the credit, not only could it lift 75,000 residents out of poverty, but it could cut deep child poverty in half.
Mitchell Little, the executive director of CEO, said partnering with local organizations that serve low-income families will be key to his office’s efforts to provide help to households that need it most.
“The advance payments have helped thousands of Philadelphia families put food on the table and keep the utilities on, but there are many more families out there that we still need to reach,” Little said.
