Awareness and Claiming of Tax Benefits Low Among Middle-Income Caregivers

Millions of families rely on a fragmented ecosystem of supports to be able to juggle work and caregiving responsibilities. While the federal government created several tax and benefit programs to provide relief, not all families are impacted equally. Middle-income families (those making between $50-100,000 annually) are particularly squeezed as they often make too much for means-tested government programs but still struggle to make ends meet with the soaring everyday costs putting increased strain on family budgets.

In the Bipartisan Policy Center’s latest poll, challenges accessing government support for caregiving were front and center for middle-income families. Even when it comes to several tax provisions for which most families are eligible, the findings highlight the persistent barriers for middle income families trying to access financial relief for caregiving costs: lack of awareness, confusion around eligibility, and uncertainty around how to claim these benefits.

Uptake of Family-Friendly Tax Benefits Low

Middle-income families are likely to feel more financially strained, in part because they are ineligible for certain federal government programs and often do not take advantage of the ones they do qualify for. While the federal government offers significant support to lower-income families, eligibility for these programs typically begins to phase out at around $50,000 of income. This leaves many middle-income families without support while still struggling to comfortably afford major expenses like child care, housing, or health care.

Several tax benefits are available to help fill that gap, including the Child Tax Credit (CTC), Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), and Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP). Middle-and higher-income caregivers often qualify for these tax benefits, and some may also be eligible for additional state-level benefit programs.

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Yet higher-income caregivers, who are better positioned to absorb increasing costs, are also more likely to know about and use these available tax benefits to help offset caregiving support costs. Middle-income caregivers were less likely to report awareness or uptake for each of these tax benefits, despite likely being eligible.

Familiarity with Tax Benefits Has Reduced Over Time

This data offers insights into how well caregivers understand changes to tax policy and which credits they may already be receiving without realizing it. These tax benefits were enhanced in the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act and received increased attention in the lead up to tax season, yet awareness among caregivers was relatively low in this poll, especially for the CTC.

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In prior BPC polls, CTC familiarity and uptake were much higher: a 2023 survey of parents showed 92% were familiar with the credit and 78% said they claimed it on their tax return, with similarly high rates of CTC familiarity and claiming in a 2022 BPC poll. However, in this year’s poll, just 70% of caregivers with children under 18 said they were aware of the credit, and 58% said they received it, despite most of these respondents likely being eligible. This significantly contrasts previous trends and actual claiming data, which shows that just under 90% of families with children received CTC benefits in 2025. This variation in response points to reduced awareness and continued confusion about how to access tax benefits.

Complicated Systems Hinder Access to Caregiving Tax Benefits

While overcoming awareness gaps can help improve claiming behavior, many respondents pointed to confusion and claiming complexity as reasons they didn’t receive these credits.

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Middle-income caregivers (27%) are more likely than higher-income caregivers (20%) to say that understanding or claiming tax benefits has been a challenge for their household in the last 12 months. More specifically, middle-income caregivers who reported not using a tax benefit cited the following reasons why: they didn’t think they qualified for benefits (39% vs. 36% overall), they did not know about it (23% vs. 22% overall), they didn’t have the required qualifying expenses or income (17%), and the process seemed too complicated (13%).

Given these reasons it is unsurprising that middle-income caregivers are also least confident that they understand the tax benefits that their household may qualify for: 67% of middle-income caregivers report being confident that they understand what they qualify for compared to 75% of higher-income households.

Conclusion

The data tells a compelling story: a significant gap exists between which tax benefits caregivers are aware of and think they may qualify for versus which benefits they receive. The delivery mechanism, as a lump sum in families’ tax returns, likely obscures receipt of certain benefits, making them less visible to caregivers. Policymakers and community leaders should look to continued education and well-designed awareness campaigns to ensure that families can are aware of and can access the tax benefits to which they are entitled. are aware of the benefits that they receive.

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