For six months last year, most households with kids received a monthly cash deposit from the increased advanced child tax credit — up to $300 per child.

The payments came through typically around this time — but not this month. And some families had come to depend on that extra money.

For Alana Truss in Las Vegas, the monthly deposits from the child tax credit went toward gas and groceries.

“We definitely relied on it,” she said.

Truss has a teenager at home and a daughter in college. Both she and her husband work, and she said the money eased financial pressure they’d been living with for a long time.

“It definitely helped with, you know, getting us through to the next paycheck,” Truss said.

This child tax credit has helped reduce food insecurity nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And most families put the cash toward other necessities as well, said Natalie Foster, co-chair and co-founder of the Economic Security Project — like rent and utilities.

“And there will be families who are surprised and very disappointed to not receive the checks this month,” she said.

Critics of the expanded credit say it was expensive, and that it should come with a work requirement for parents.

The Joe Biden administration hoped to continue the payments in the Build Back Better bill, but for now, that legislation is stalled.

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