By Katie Fleischer for Ms. Magazine.
Broadcast version by Lily Böhlke for West Virginia News Service reporting for the Ms. Magazine-Public News Service Collaboration

COVID-19 and the unprecedented economic crisis it caused made 2020 one of the most economically challenging years for communities across the country. Almost two-thirds of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck during the pandemic, with women and people of color facing additional hardships like increased unemployment and disproportionate childcare burdens.

Yet 2020 was also a revolutionary year, with necessity becoming a driving force towards increased awareness of the challenges facing low-income Americans and transformative new policies-such as Biden's child tax credit expansion (CTC) and the stimulus checks provided by the CARES Act.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau study showed the $1,200 (plus $500 per child) stimulus checks distributed during the pandemic led to the lowest U.S. poverty rate on record-9.1 percent in 2020, down from 11.8 percent in 2019-and lifted 8.5 million people out of poverty. (The poverty line is about $26,496 per year for a family of four.) Without the stimulus checks, the poverty rate would have instead jumped to 12.7 percent, the Census Bureau estimates.

And the expanded CTC, which provides parents $3,000 to $3,600 per child during 2021, is expected to show similar results: Experts estimate the plan will decrease child poverty by 40 percent, lifting more than four million children out of poverty.

Now, advocates hope the successes of those economic interventions will provide momentum for the continuation of these policies and implementation of new federal programs like a guaranteed income. While transformational for all Americans battling poverty (over 37 million Americans), these economic interventions would especially help working moms, low-income women and women of color.

Despite widespread bipartisan support for both provisions, neither the stimulus payments nor the CTC were designed to be permanent solutions. Stimulus checks were intended to be one-time offers to help Americans during the worst of the pandemic, and Biden's expansion of the CTC will end in December-though a majority of voters want it to become a permanent policy.

A more permanent solution could come from the Build Back Better Act (BBB), Biden's signature bill working its way through Congress, that would provide funding for childcare and free education, extend the CTC, require 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave and implement many other transformative feminist policies. But the bill will require approval from every Democratic senator, and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (W.V.) have been reluctant to agree.

While policymakers negotiate over Build Back Better, poverty rates have already started increasing again, signaling the urgent need for more permanent stimulus policies. This uptick in the poverty rate will have very real consequences for low-income people, especially parents and women of color.

One mom, Johnnie (last name withheld for anonymity), receives guaranteed income through the Magnolia Mother's Trust (MMT) program, which provides low-income Black mothers $1,000 per month for a year. Johnnie worked as an essential worker during the pandemic, but was forced to quit her job to care for her daughter.

In the Front and Center series, she shared the impact the stimulus check had on her life:

"The first stimulus check helped me catch up on back rent since I didn't have any income while I was ill in early 2020, which really helped me. If I would've had some assistance from my employer, I also wouldn't have been behind on my rent. Not having any income during the time I was out sick was really challenging; my car also got repossessed. So it took until getting my stimulus check that I was able to catch up on my car payments and insurance and get my car back, which was the way I got to work.

"I really think the government needs to have some kind of program to make sure that essential workers are taken care of if there's another pandemic. I really just think that employers and the government need to be prepared better for something like this-have supplies, have support programs, have a plan in place. I just think of all of the people who lost their lives and it makes me so sorry all of this happened the way it did."

Another MMT mom, I'esha, contracted COVID-19 last summer as she worked multiple customer service jobs, and was later unable to work due to a high-risk pregnancy. Along with her guaranteed income payments, the CTC helped keep her family afloat:

"To get the child tax credit payments that started coming last month has been a huge help. I was able to use the first payment in July to get prepared and buy my children their school things-there's so much to get. The clothes, the shoes, the school supplies. I swear that list gets longer every year.

"If I could talk to President Biden, I would tell him that he should make the child tax credit permanent, because so many people are still unemployed and the pandemic is not over. And people need help even without a pandemic going on."

Even one-time cash payments helped low-income families escape cycles of debt and poverty, and plan for future hardships. But while the stimulus checks were an important stopgap measure, true economic justice will require addressing poverty's root causes. Even with the reduction of poverty during 2020, the racial disparities were stark: 8.1 percent of white Americans were below the poverty line, compared to 14.6 percent of Black Americans.

Any effective plan designed to reduce poverty must focus on those most affected. One strategy economic justice experts are advocating for is guaranteed income, which involves recurring payments directed to specific groups. By focusing on marginalized communities, guaranteed income can address economic issues caused by systemic racism and sexism, and can give struggling Americans a way to meet their basic needs and invest in their futures.

The MMT program puts this policy into action, demonstrating that giving women an economic safety net leads to families escaping poverty and having the ability to set themselves and their families up for success. One mom participating in the program, Roneisha, has been able to use the guaranteed income to escape a crushing cycle of debt and poverty:

"The struggle with the job hunt makes the child tax credit payments and the guaranteed income I get through the Magnolia Mother's Trust even more important this year as I work to find a job that pays an even semi-livable wage. It really helped me when I was preparing for my baby to come, I was able to get pretty much everything he needed. At the baby shower all we needed was just a few diapers and things.

"Before I got that call that I was selected to be part of the program, I was really struggling to keep on top of my bills and responsibilities. And now that I'm on this fixed income, it's helped me get really good at managing my money and making sure I'm staying on top of everything and using this opportunity wisely. I'm hopeful that I can only go up from here."

Tia agreed, adding:

"I know people say that if you have programs like these, people will stop working. I don't personally understand that-I mean, I think it's fine if someone made that choice, but for me I'll always want to be working, I want to be adding to my money, not decreasing it. It's not about not working; it's about just being able to take a little time off-to take a week and spend it with your kids, then go back to work. I wasn't able to do that before, to have that time off without being worried about covering the bills.

"And the things I was able to do in that year, I'm still benefiting from now. And I really don't think I would've been able to do those things otherwise, or it would've taken so much longer. So just being able to accomplish things faster, that was huge. For me, being able to get out of affordable housing was such a big step."

On an individual level, guaranteed income, even for just a year, made a tremendous difference in the lives of these women and their families. And the results speak for themselves-the percentage of MMT participants able to pay all their bills without additional support soared from 37 percent to 80 percent during the program.

Similarly, after receiving guaranteed payments for a year, 85 percent of participating moms had completed their high school education, compared to 63 percent at the beginning of the program. MMT mothers were also 20 percent more likely to have children performing at or above grade level, and were 27 percent more likely to seek needed medical care than other moms not receiving guaranteed income.

A federal guaranteed income could decimate poverty rates and help marginalized communities grow and recover from generations of economic challenges. Like the stimulus checks, guaranteed income puts cash directly into the hands of people who need it most, without requiring people to use it in specific ways. This economic freedom allows recipients to make the best decisions for their families, and gives them the freedom to save, spend or invest in their long term goals.

By trusting low-income people and giving them the opportunity to develop a safety net, a federal guaranteed income policy would help address poverty in the U.S., prioritize the most vulnerable communities and help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Katie Fleischer wrote this article for Ms. Magazine.


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From January 2020 to December 2021, utility companies shut off power to Hoosier homes more than 260,000 times.

According to a new report from BailoutWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity, Indiana had the third-highest amount of energy shut-offs in the nation during the two-year time period.

Christopher Kuveke, data analyst at BailoutWatch, noted Indiana's shut-off rate jumped from 2020 to 2021, as moratoriums on such practices expired.

"A big problem we saw with these moratoria nationally is they did help keep people connected throughout the duration," Kuveke acknowledged. "But there weren't necessarily adequate payment programs to help the people protect themselves from racked up debt and outstanding bills that were accumulated during the moratorium."

Indiana adopted a utility shut-off moratorium early in the pandemic, which ended in August 2020. A program compelling utilities to offer extended utility payment plans expired in October 2020, but some companies continued offering long-term repayment plans and other resources to help customers meet their utility costs.

Utility companies argued the report is incomplete and fails to take into account those initiatives.

The report included data from 33 states and the District of Columbia, as not all states had shut-off numbers available.

Kuveke pointed out the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not require companies to collect and disclose such data.

"The authors and myself believe FERC needs to come up with a policy to mandate a uniform reporting system for utilities in every state," Kuveke asserted.

Jean Su, energy justice program director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said communities of color are disproportionately impacted by cutoffs, as they carry a higher "energy burden," or how much of their income goes toward utility bills.

"Black families in particular have three to four times the energy burden of white families," Su outlined. "Latinx families also have that same ratio."

Su explained it is an issue with two root causes. She said Black and brown communities have generally lower incomes than white ones, but their neighborhoods also tend to be hotter because of long-standing racist housing practices.

"So we have areas where public housing has far less insulation and far less energy-efficient buildings, so that raises the need for greater heating and cooling," Su emphasized. "We also see that those communities have been built with far less tree cover."

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported from 2005 to 2015, emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses increased by 67% for Black residents and 63% for Hispanic residents, compared with a 27% increase for white people.

For Minnesota to make big gains in reducing poverty, its safety net needs to be more robust, according to a new report highlighting disparities residents around the state are experiencing while elevating themselves from hardship.

Minnesota's official poverty rate is 8.7 %, which is below the national average.

Angie Fertig, social policy research scientist at the University of Minnesota, said when you dig deeper, there are broad levels of unevenness. The state is known for its racial disparities, and Fertig confirmed BIPOC residents have much higher poverty rates than white residents, and existing support systems only help meet basic needs.

"A lot of people believe that Minnesota is a very generous state in terms of its safety net," Fertig acknowledged. "And that's generally true. However, there are lots of things that we could do better."

The report calls for state action, such as expanding eligibility for SNAP benefits, to help all families prosper. Despite a large budget surplus, it is unclear if boosting various forms of assistance will happen under a divided Legislature. The poverty rate for Black residents is 21%, while 29% of Native Americans fall into the same category.

Fertig pointed out there is also variation when looking at poverty through a geographic lens, with higher rates in certain urban centers, including Duluth and the Twin Cities, and some rural regions as well. Her report calculated separate poverty rates when factoring in federal benefit programs and found it was not much better than the official rate.

"What the report reveals is that current policies and programs just aren't enough to eliminate poverty," Fertig asserted. "They exactly balance out with the higher costs that living (and) covering your basic needs entail."

Bill Grant, executive director of the Minnesota Community Action Partnership, which supported the report, said it is good to have a more accurate measure so organizations such as his know where to ask for legislative support to make them stronger.

"While a number of people have benefited from these programs, they aren't accomplishing the primary objective, which is to lift people out of poverty," Grant stressed.

The new report looked at 2019 data and called for a statewide Commission to End Poverty. Those involved hoped to issue annual findings to track how marginalized residents are faring, especially in light of the pandemic.

By Katie Fleischer
Broadcast version by Emily Scott
Reporting for the Ms. Magazine -Arkansas News Service Collaboration

It's no secret that extra cash can reduce stress and allow people to do things they've been putting off-like buying a few treats, going to the doctor or paying off debts. But new evidence suggests that receiving monthly payments doesn't just impact the mental health of parents, but also the brains and futures of their children.

A recent study compared two sets of low-income families, one group who received $20/month and another who received $333/month starting at their baby's birth. After a year, researchers found that the infants whose families received $333/month had more high-frequency brain activity-which is associated with the development of cognitive processing skills and increased memory.

This experiment concludes what low-income people have always known-that poverty and the stress associated with it has a negative impact on children's health. However, it also reveals the effects of childhood poverty linger throughout someone's life, affecting their cognitive development and impacting their future education or career. While this result will need to be confirmed with further research, the study helps demonstrate that early financial interventions in infants' lives can have a measurable impact on their health and help set them up for future success.

Throughout 2021, many low-income children were receiving these cognitive and developmental benefits, thanks to the expanded child tax credit (CTC). As part of President Biden's American Rescue Plan, parents received $3,000 to $3,600 per child for 2021, split up into six monthly payments and a larger lump sum during tax season in 2022.

During the six months the program was active, child poverty was reduced by 30 percent. The payments reached more than 36 million households, keeping 3.7 million children out of poverty in December. Now, the CTC has expired, putting millions of low-income families in precarious financial positions once again.

For Sequaya, a low-income Black mom who lost her job during the pandemic, the CTC helped keep her family afloat:

"The new child tax credit payments have helped me a lot, especially since I've just gone from getting paid every week to having zero income. It's helped to put shoes on my daughter's feet and food in the fridge until my SNAP benefits come through. It's a big relief to wake up and just know, 'Okay, I'm not going to have to borrow money today because I have that extra help coming in.' It's very helpful."

Now that the monthly CTC payments have ended, moms like Sequaya are losing the financial stability they relied on. But a similar policy, guaranteed income, is another option to ensure that low-income infants can achieve the same level of cognitive development as more privileged children.

Just like the CTC, guaranteed income provides low-income families with unrestricted cash payments, giving them the flexibility to keep up with monthly costs and invest in their children's futures. To guaranteed income proponents, this new research proves that providing unrestricted monthly payments-instead of complex welfare systems that require parents to jump through confusing hoops-will benefit low-income families across the U.S.

The Magnolia Mother's Trust (MMT) is one example of how guaranteed income can have a huge impact on marginalized families. By providing Black mothers living in extreme poverty with $1,000 per month for a year, MMT has demonstrated that unrestricted financial benefits can have extremely powerful effects on children-and they plan to use the evidence from their pilot program to advocate for a federal guaranteed income policy for all low-income families.

After a year of receiving guaranteed income, the percentage of MMT participants able to pay all their bills without additional support jumped from 37 percent to 80 percent. MMT mothers were 20 percent more likely to have children performing at or above grade level, and were 27 percent more likely to seek needed medical care than other moms not receiving guaranteed income. Many of the moms found that guaranteed income allowed them to focus on their children's education and health in ways that were previously out of reach.

For example, one MMT recipient Sabrina (last name withheld), a mother of three who was laid off from her retail job at the beginning of the pandemic, was able to enroll her son in a school designed to help him with his dyslexia. Another, Elsie, who works with the disabled, could afford to pay for the uniforms and fees necessary for her children to participate in the choir and marching band at school.

And single mom Chephirah shared:

"[MMT] has really helped me in preparing for [my daughter's] school. The money has also helped me cover my monthly bills, and get caught up on some old debts. It also helps to pay for things like my daughter's school books. And it's helped me in preparing for college. My hope for her right now is to be the first one in our family to graduate from high school-my brothers and I all left school early. I want her to have a real high school diploma, not a GED. I want her to go to college, and to just know that whatever she wants to strive for, I'm gonna be right there behind her to support her 100 percent."

For many of the moms, having more consistent access to money meant they could finally stop living paycheck-to-paycheck and focus on not just physical health, but the mental health of themselves and their kids as well.

Amber, a mother of two who works as a call center operator, reflected:

"My goal with my kids is to be an all-around support system for them in all aspects of their life, especially for their mental health because I think that's a really important issue in the Black community. I want to make sure they are given the proper tools to protect their mental and physical health in order to progress in life. I'm thinking about counseling for my kids-they haven't shown any signs of the pandemic wearing on them, but it's something I worry about."

Erica works at an elementary school and dreams of opening a counseling center for kids.

"Getting to be part of the Mother's Trust this year did a lot for me and my family," she wrote. "There's the financial part that's so important, but it also helped me show up better for my kids. I don't think I ever let them down before, but I used to have to work four or five jobs to make ends meet. Having the income coming in on top of my wages from work gave me more time to spend with them since I didn't have to work extra hours to make sure they had what they needed. It just helped me build myself up-financially, mentally, emotionally-everything you need to really build yourself up."

A common story among the MMT moms is how guaranteed income gives them a financial buffer, allowing them to relax and spend more time focused on their families and themselves instead of worrying about monthly bills. For their children, it lets them avoid the perpetual stress that comes with poverty, freeing up mental space to focus on school. In the long-term, that financial stability will likely enable more low-income children to go to college and achieve higher-paying careers.

Clearly, MMT-and other guaranteed income programs across the country-reveal the huge impact that consistent financial assistance has for low-income children, providing their parents with the resources they need to prioritize their long-term needs and set their children up for future success and happiness.

A federal guaranteed income policy would enable marginalized parents to support their children's education, invest in their family's future and live their lives without the constant mental burdens of debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck. Providing unrestricted cash to those who need it most would be a transformational policy for struggling Americans, and would help low-income children escape from crushing cycles of debt and poverty.

Mother of two and guaranteed income recipient Annette agrees.

"Thanks to the new child tax credit expansion coming monthly and the Magnolia Mother's Trust, I've been able to do more for my kids and not have to worry if I can afford a school uniform or school supplies," she wrote. "If I were able to sit down with our country's leaders, I would tell them how important a program like the Trust is. The money has helped me in pursuing a better future for me and my kids, and it helps low-income women like myself better ourselves."

This story was originally reported and written by Katie Fleischer for Ms. Magazine .


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