COVID-19
The COVID-19 crisis is particularly devastating for families with low incomes and communities of color. GCPI ESOI is actively engaged in developing and advancing policies that would provide relief for communities of color, immigrant communities, and people experiencing poverty; support durable recovery efforts; and build economic security and opportunity for the long term.
Ensuring Economic Security & Opportunity in Our Lifetime: America’s Pandemic Relief Response & the Path Forward
In 2020, federal policymakers took extraordinary measures to help millions of families avoid poverty and material hardship during the COVID-19 crisis. These temporary federal relief efforts—especially those boosting household incomes and ensuring people’s access to essential services—“played a central role in stabilizing our families and our nation’s economy, while pushing back on deep racial and gender inequity,” according to GCPI Co-Executive Director Indi Dutta-Gupta’s testimony before the United States House of Representatives Select Subcommittee Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Dutta-Gupta also argued that continuing to provide needed support to families would address pre-existing inequities and the weaknesses of social protection programs. Policies in “Build Back Better” proposals—with some crucial additions—would provide transformational investments to protect families and our economy against future threats, meet our national caregiving and job needs, and reduce poverty, hardship, and inequality for generations to come.
Opinion: It’s time to make these expanded tax credits permanent
If you have kids, check your bank account on Thursday. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see $250 or $300 in your account with the letters “CTC” in the line item.If you have kids, check your bank account on Thursday. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see $250 or $300 in your account with the letters “CTC” in the line item. That’s because for the first time ever, we are recognizing raising kids as essential work with a bigger Child Tax Credit (CTC) for more families, and the option to get your tax credit as a monthly check or direct deposit.
100 Days for Opportunity & Well-Being: An Executive & Administrative Action Agenda for Children & Families
The COVID-19 pandemic and recession have greatly magnified existing health and economic inequities, threatening the well-being of children and families. Children, families, and communities throughout the United States urgently need bold, equitable, and anti-racist human services to meet the extraordinary challenges facing our country. This brief summarizes the key recommendations from a GCPI research project identifying, developing, and prioritizing human services-focused federal executive actions to improve economic security and well-being for children and families in the U.S.
Strengthening Young Adult Opportunity in the Federal Workforce: An Executive Order on Recruitment, Hiring, Retention, & Advancement
The COVID-19 pandemic and recession have intensified young adult unemployment and disconnection, increasing young people’s need for good job opportunities. The federal government urgently needs to address both the aging of its workforce and racial and gender inequity, particularly in senior positions, and hiring more young people can strengthen the diversity of the pipeline. This memo recommends an equity-focused executive order—centering communities of color and high-poverty communities—to increase young adult recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement in federal government jobs.
The stimulus shows U.S. attitudes about child poverty are changing in a big way
The old approach is being replaced by direct assistance, but more help is needed
Hutchison, Dutta-Gupta: WV needs Congress to go big on COVID relief
West Virginia families are struggling. One in seven adults in the state struggle with hunger. One in five households with children in the state reported that the kids weren’t eating enough because the family struggled to afford food.
No Choice: The Implications of Unmet Child Care Needs For Unemployment Assistance & Paid Leave Access During The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the growing need for child care, paid leave, and unemployment assistance, but many state and federal unemployment assistance and paid leave programs fail to account for the child care needs of working families. This project chronicles and analyzes state-by-state policies on the availability of wage replacements for workers without child care. The table lists policies on the availability of unemployment assistance and paid leave by state, including D.C. and territories, including definitions of school “closures” for regular and pandemic unemployment assistance eligibility, work search requirements, and working documentation of state paid leave programs.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Poverty & Families in Poverty
The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated poverty, hardship, and racial and gender inequities in the United States. In the first months of the crisis, about a third of people in the United States reported difficulty paying rent, keeping food on the table, or getting medical care. This presentation, delivered during the National Head Start Association’s 2020 Fall Leadership Institute, highlights the devastating, disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people experiencing poverty in the United States with a particular focus on communities of color.
Untangling Unemployment Assistance Benefits in 2020: A Flow Chart
GCPI, the National Employment Law Project, and the Century Foundation created a flowchart to clarify which pandemic-response or regular unemployment assistance benefits may be available to workers from late March 2020 through late December 2020 and under which circumstances.