While cash welfare programs withered in the decades after welfare reform, cash transfers delivered through the tax code, such as the Child Tax Credit (CTC), expanded significantly. This article analyzes 104 longitudinal qualitative interviews with twenty-nine parents who received the 2021 pandemic-era Expanded Child Tax Credit to understand how its unique policy design shaped subjective experiences and perceptions of the program. Unlike traditional welfare programs, participants felt the Expanded CTC was fair and carried little stigma owing to its universality, association with children, and delivery through the tax code. Across income groups, monthly Expanded CTC payments were viewed as sources of financial stability that helped parents get by, whereas lump-sum payments enabled larger, mobility-enhancing purchases. Although the Expanded CTC expired, it represented a significant shift in social policy design—promoting goals of financial stability, investments in children, social inclusion, and macroeconomic stabilization—and offers a vision for the future of social policy in the United States.
Abbott et al. (Fri,) studied this question.