Carolyn Hill
I’m a mother, grandmother and great grandmother raising 3 of my grandkids in Philadelphia, PA. I also love cooking for church activities and I’m known as “Grandma” to my entire community. Along with the PAB, I’m also a member of Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike and Give Us Back Our Children, and I volunteer at the Crossroads Women’s Center, where I run the twice-weekly community rummage.
1. What is something you’re really proud of as a grandparent?
My 18-year-old graduated from high school. I’m proud of her for graduating. I’m proud that I’m getting two more there too! I’m proud to be their grandmother! I’m proud to have them in my home. I’m proud of the work I do for them. I clean, I cook, and I wash their clothes. And make sure they get to their doctor’s appointments.
2. What do you want lawmakers to know about what it’s like raising children and making ends meet in today’s economy?
I would like them to know that it’s not a 9-to-5 job. It’s a 24/7 job, nonstop, period. It’s work! It’s not work that we just sit on our butt and do nothing. It’s work that we get up and do, going places, taking them places, going out with them. It’s a lot of work.
We need more money. The prices of things these days are going up. From the time that I was born, prices have gone up. I’m 69 years old. My grandma used to send me to the store to get a pack of cigarettes and a soda and it was only a dollar. Now, it’s food, it’s clothes, everything!
I’m used to cooking big pots [of food], but I can’t do it anymore. They cut my food stamps. Everything is going up. It makes no sense. They say, “Save for a rainy day,” but you can’t save money! There’s only enough money to feed the kids, clothe them, and pay the bills. I’ve never been through this before, never, and I brought up five kids.
3. Why is the Child Tax Credit (CTC) important to you?
It’s important to me and others because I see a lot of people struggling, as far as housing, and feeding and clothing their kids. And the CTC helps a lot of people as far as paying your rent. Welfare doesn’t pay you enough. And you get a job, but it’s not paying enough. It’s not enough because welfare gives one person with one child $150. So you just send that person out to get a place or a room for $150, when it costs at least $800 or $900. When I got the CTC, it helped me make sure my bills were paid on time, we had healthy food, and the kids had a chance to go to the movies at night. They need to give us what we deserve for doing the right thing, keeping our kids off the streets.
Before I got it, I was struggling. After I got it, I caught up. After it stopped, I’m back to struggling. The CTC can help people struggling with housing, especially if they have 3 or 4 children. That was a big relief for a lot of people! Some of the kids didn’t get taken by [child welfare] because their moms had enough money to support them, and get them through. Now more kids are being taken by child welfare because their family don’t have enough money or decent housing for them.
4. Why is it important to you that lawmakers expand the Child Tax Credit?
You got people out here living good and eating healthy and doing what they want, and you got some out here who can’t eat healthy and can’t do what they want. Us people that suffer, don’t need to suffer. Give us back our tax credit, to help us do better. We can do better, but only if the lawmakers sign the paper to build for us to do better. They really need to know. They’re getting what they need to live well. We don’t. We don’t own our house. We rent. The electric and gas, it goes up. They need to know that we are suffering with the little bit of money that’s going around for us. It’s not enough. We want to be happy like they are happy. And they can’t say that they’re not happy. Because they are getting paid very well.
5. If you had $500 more for each of your children every month, how would you use it?
I’d use it for healthy food. I’d put [my grandkids] in little programs, the stuff that they want to get into, like dance classes. Going to the movies. Eating, shopping, going out. Making sure our bills are paid first, and we have shoes on our feet and clothes on our back, and the rest we just go out and have a ball! I want each child to get something out of it.
6. In addition to increasing the benefit level, are there other changes to the CTC that you think are important to ensure children and families can thrive?
You got grandparents out here raising grandchildren, but the mom is claiming them on their tax forms because the grandparent doesn’t earn enough to get the full CTC. But that money doesn’t always get shared. The money should be going to the person who is raising the child, not just who claims the child on their taxes.
Sometimes you got the mother in a shelter with their child to get out of a domestic abuse situation, but the father is claiming the child on the tax returns. Sometimes, you got the father raising the child but the mother claims the Child Tax Credit first. Sometimes, when a child is in foster care, the parent can’t get the CTC. Or I know someone who adopted two kids but can’t get the CTC. And with grandparents, sometimes they can’t get the CTC because they’re not working anymore to earn enough for the full CTC. But we’ve been working! We’re just raising our grandkids now. The money should go to the child, wherever they are, period.