According to a new report, the number of Americans living in poverty has increased for the first time in more than ten years, and the poverty rate for children has doubled since 2021.
The US Census Bureau, a key organization in the American Federal Statistical System, released the data on Tuesday.
It was stated that in 2022, the poverty rate increased to 12 points 4 percent, meaning that millions of people did not have the bare necessities of life.
The amount is based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which includes some non-cash government assistance and necessary expenses.
According to Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the rise in poverty is “stunning.”
Parrott cited the abrupt rise in child poverty as a result of the expanded federal Child Tax Credit’s scheduled expiration in 2022 and urged lawmakers to extend the benefit.
Children now live in poverty at a twice as high rate.
Last year, more than 13% of American children were living in poverty.
Professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Timothy Smeeding, a leading authority on the poverty line, declared that “Child Poverty Took a Big Jump.”
According to Dave Waddington, director of the division that tracks social, economic, and housing statistics for the Census Bureau, the increase in 2022 was probably related to the end of pandemic-era benefits.
Child tax credits, expanded unemployment benefits, Medicaid, and food stamps, according to Zachary Parolin, a professor at Columbia University and the author of “Poverty in the Pandemic: Lessons from COVID-19,” caused poverty in the US to reach record lows in 2020 and 2021.
According to Parolin, the streak of three years in a row with the lowest poverty rates in history has ended.
According to Parolin, this year’s rise in the poverty rate is in line with recent predictions made by social scientists.
It will be a challenging year for many Americans who are already struggling with poverty as chief US economists predict a high likelihood that the US economy will enter a recession.
Last October, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin predicted that the US would experience a recession for at least two years.
According to US media, Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted the housing bubble would burst in 2008, the US economy was experiencing a “sharp slowdown.”
The economist forewarned that the recession would be severe, prolonged, long-lasting, and accompanied by widespread financial distress.
