The Failure of New Jersey’s Outreach Efforts for the Expanded Child Tax Credit

Abstract

Child poverty is much higher in America than in many of our peer nations, causing significant negative impacts on well-being, education, and the overall economy. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 contained a bold policy change to meet this shameful poverty rate, by temporarily expanding the existing Child Tax Credit into a policy resembling a child allowance. For the year 2021, the credit would reach all low-income parents and guardians with a more generous tax refund distributed through monthly payments. For most Americans, these payments were automatically administered by IRS. However, parents and guardians who do not file federal income taxes, known as non-filers, needed to claim it on their own. As a result, there was a wide call for state and local outreach to be conducted for this population, to inform and assist them in claiming the credit. This thesis examines how these outreach efforts proceeded in New Jersey. Through 66 interviews with partners at the federal, state, and local level, it paints a picture of outreach efforts across the state, offering a look into who was involved, what they did, and most importantly, if their actions reflected the best practices of previous outreach campaigns. These best practices include engagement with horizontal and vertical networks, sustained outreach over time, implementation of multi-faceted outreach, and the provision of personal assistance. They were derived from an analysis of prior outreach campaigns. My findings indicate that outreach efforts in New Jersey mostly failed in mirroring these four best practices. While organizations were well-intentioned in their desires to help families, a lack of financial and staff capacity, low understanding of the credit, failures to effectively engage local and state-level partners, and the ill-suited structure of New Jersey’s VITA sites, all hindered effective outreach. This led to an overall outreach effort that was almost non-existent, and failed to adequately reach non-filers. The thesis closes by providing recommendations for federal, state and local actors to implement. These offer the chance to remedy some of the issues seen in New Jersey, and improve future outreach efforts for the Child Tax Credit.