On January 15, 2014, over fifty organizations submitted a letter to the
U.S. Senate strongly urging that legislative house to oppose proposals
to change eligibility requirements for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) as a
condition of extending Unemployment Insurance coverage. As stated in the
letter, extending unemployment insurance benefits helps keep Americans
seeking work in a tough labor market from falling over an “economic
cliff”. Restricting CTC eligibility – specifically by requiring
taxpayers to have a Social Security number in order to claim the
refundable portion of the CTC – would drastically affect millions of
low-income families.
By requiring taxpayers to have a Social Security number, over two
million low-wage working families who pay income and payroll taxes would
not be able to claim the CTC credit. This would additionally impact
more than four million U.S. citizen children, many of whom are Latino,
states the letter.
Signatories to the letter include the American Immigration Lawyers
Association, AFL-CIO, Children’s Defense Fund and Southern Poverty Law
Center.
