Legislators are urging families across the Hudson Valley to take all the necessary steps to secure the child tax credit. 

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand and Rep. Mondaire Jones outlined the details of the expansion in White Plains Friday. 

Monthly payments of up to $250 are rolling out to bank accounts of families for each child aged 6 to 17 years old.

Those with children under 6 receive $300 every month. A total of 39 million families across the country are expected to receive benefits, including families of more than 35 million children under 18 in the state. 

“We want to make sure that families get access to these resources that they are entitled to,” Gillibrand says. “This money is for them. It’s for their children. It will allow us to lift half of the children out of poverty who in poverty today.”

Those who filed their tax returns for 2019-220 or signed up to receive COVID-19 stimulus checks will automatically receive the tax benefit. 

Families that did not earn enough money to file income taxes in previous years or who welcomed a new baby into their family in 2021 must sign up on the IRS portal.