HHS Issues Report on Poverty Reduction Efforts

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week released a new report highlighting the economic impact of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), specifically the role ARPA played in reducing poverty. The report, issued by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), projects that economic relief efforts – including economic impact payments, unemployment compensation, and the monthly child tax credit – kept 20.1 million people out of poverty, including 7.8 million children.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Federal and state economic stimulus reduced overall poverty by 45 percent in 2021 (20.1 million people)

• Federal and state economic stimulus reduced child poverty by 56 percent (7.8 million children)

• Poverty reductions were larger for groups with historically higher poverty rates – American Indians/Alaska Native (7.6 percentage points), Black non-Hispanic people (7.0 percentage points), and Hispanic people (6.9 percentage points)

The full report from HHS ASPE is available here.