The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service announced today that more than $15 billion were paid to families that include roughly 61 million eligible children in the second monthly payment of the expanded and newly-advanceable Child Tax Credit from the American Rescue Plan passed in March.

The number of payments this month increased and cover an additional 1.6 million children. Eligible families received a payment of up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child age 6 to 17.

This tax relief is having a real impact on the lives of America’s children. According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey data released earlier this week, parents reported having less trouble covering the costs of food and other household expenses after receiving their first CTC payment. The share of families reporting that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past week dropped to the lowest percentage since the pandemic began. Parents are using their CTC payments to pay for basics for their kids. Roughly half of those who received a July CTC payment reported using it to pay for food and 1 in 4 spent some of their CTC on clothing.

“Today 61 million children across America are benefiting from the advance Child Tax Credit, helping families put food on the table and meet the needs of the next generation,” said Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “We want every eligible family to have access to the advance Child Tax Credit, which is why we will continue our outreach efforts to drive enrollment as our children return to school.”

Treasury is announcing its commitment — as part of the Administration’s efforts to extend the expanded CTC program — to create a permanent, multi-lingual, and mobile friendly sign-up tool to help more Americans who do not regularly file taxes to claim their CTC. Treasury will work with Congress to ensure the effort is fully resourced. The Administration will also work with Congress to provide the necessary funding for a multi-year effort — leveraging public sector and community-oriented solutions — to reach and sign up more families and children.

In the meantime, Treasury and the White House are announcing a new, mobile-friendly, bilingual sign-up tool created by Code for America — a civic technology non-profit — which will be available in the coming weeks. The Administration will make an all-of government effort to enroll eligible families in the CTC, while also supporting the type of outreach and assistance needed over the long-term to ensure the Child Tax Credit is lifting up all our nation’s children.

As was the case last month, the vast majority of families received their August payments by direct deposit and the remainder will receive checks in the mail. Due to a technical issue expected to be resolved by the September payments, a small percentage of recipients – less than 15% – who received payments by direct deposit in July will be mailed paper checks for the August payment. Families can visit the Child Tax Credit Update Portal to see if they’re receiving a direct deposit or paper check this month.