The child poverty rate in the United States more than doubled last year due to several possible factors, including the expiration of government benefits meant to get families through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The supplemental poverty measure rate for kids leapt from a record low of 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022, according to statistics released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy said that figure equates to 5.2 million more children living below the poverty line.

Child tax credits and payments to families impacted by the pandemic in 2020 led to “a substantial decrease in child poverty” in 2021, said Linda Fox, the Census Bureau assistant division chief. But federal expanded child tax credits, along with other related benefits, expired before the start of 2022.

Census numbers also showed a 2.3% decline in median household incomes. That, along with high inflation — the U.S. inflation rate ballooned to 8.3% in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — has likely contributed to the problem of child poverty.

President Biden said the reported increase in poverty is “no accident” and vowed to restore the tax credit he blames congressional Republicans for declining to extend. Critics of extending those benefits said they worried it would add to inflation and disincentive workers.

The New York Times, however, cited research that advocates believe supports the idea that children were helped by extended child tax credits, without those credits affecting parental employment. Unemployment rates have hovered near record lows since pandemic lockdown restrictions were relaxed.

“If we want to be a country where the American dream is within reach, then we have to invest in our children and try to eradicate poverty in our nation,” said Kim Janey, former Boston mayor and current CEO of the anti-poverty nonprofit Boston Economic Mobility Pathways.

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