(PatriotWise.com) — The US Census Bureau last week said that the poverty rate in 2022 increased for the first time in 13 years due in large part to the expiration of pandemic-era benefits programs, ABC News reported.
At the start of 2022, pandemic programs like stimulus payments and refundable tax credits expired, leading to a significant increase in the poverty rate, according to the Census Bureau.
Based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the poverty rate last year increased to 12.4 percent, up from only 4.6 percent in 2021.
The poverty rate among children more than doubled from 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022 after the child tax credit expansion, enacted as part of President Biden’s so-called American Rescue Plan, ended on December 31, 2021.
Last Tuesday, President Biden criticized the Republican-led House for refusing to extend the child tax credit expansion and blamed them for the increase in child poverty last year, before the Republicans retook the House.
The president said in a statement that he would continue fighting to restore the tax credit to give families “the tax relief and breathing room they deserve.”
According to the Census Bureau report, Social Security pulled 28.9 million people out of poverty in 2022, calling it the “most important antipoverty program” of last year.
Based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure, the poverty rate among blacks fell by 2.4 percent between 2021 and 2022, decreasing from 19.5 percent in 2021 to 17.1 percent in 2022. Likewise, the poverty rate among Asian Americans fell from 9.1 percent in 2021 to 8.6 percent in 2022.
Among whites, the poverty rate ticked up slightly in 2022, sitting at 10.5 percent last year, a 0.5 percent increase over 2021.
The Census Bureau measures the official poverty rate by comparing pre-tax income to a poverty threshold that is adjusted based on the number of family members.
Copyright 2023, PatriotWise.com
