June 21, 2021, was declared Child Tax Credit Awareness Day by the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in an effort to encourage families to sign up for child tax credit benefits. Neighborhood Services pushed out several social media posts encouraging families to sign up for the program and will continue to post periodically through July 15. Neighborhood Services staff will also attend the Summer Block Parties hosted in conjunction with the Champaign Park District to share information on the benefits of the Advanced Child Tax credit and how to sign up.
The child tax credit will provide $3,000 to $3,600 per child for eligible families via monthly payments of $300 or $350 from July through December. It is currently estimated that about eight million children that are eligible will not receive this benefit because their parents are non-filers and/or have not signed up for their federal stimulus check. Families who filed taxes in 2019 or 2020, or who signed up to receive a federal stimulus check, will not need to do anything.
If you would like more information about the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and/or the 2021 Advance Child Tax Credit, please visit ChildTaxCredit.gov.