REUTERS

A poverty-fighting measure included in the COVID-19 relief bill passed this year will deliver monthly payments to households including 88% of children in the United States, starting in July, Biden administration officials said on Monday.

The Democratic-backed American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Joe Biden in March as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, expanded a tax credit available to most parents.

Those people will get up to $3,000 per child, or $3,600 for each child under the age of 6, in 2021, subject to income restrictions. The benefit will reach 39 million households, many automatically and by direct deposit every month, starting on July 15.

It is one of several measures the administration says could lift more than 5 million children out of poverty, half of the total number of U.S. youngsters in that situation.

Biden has asked Congress to extend the tax credit through 2025.

Officials are trying to help the economy recover from the pandemic. Yet recent signs of higher inflation have raised concern that those costs could eat away at incomes and exacerbate inequality.