Poland’s social protection reforms have played an important part in the country’s progress. In 2007, Poland had one of the highest child poverty rates in the EU (followed only by Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Romania), which the country managed to contain and even slightly reduce during the global recession of 2008-10.52 More substantial improvements were recorded from 2016 onwards, following the Government’s decision to increase expenditure on cash benefits for households with children. A new quasi-universal child benefit called Family 500 Plus was rolled out in 2016, which, by the end of 2017, covered almost 4 million children (58 per cent of all children in Poland).53 In 2019, the programme was turned into a fully universal benefit covering all 7 million Polish children aged 0–17. In March 2022, the programme was extended to the 700,000 Ukrainian refugees hosted in Poland. 54 The Government of Canada has also undertaken ambitious reform of its social protection policies for children, by introducing the Canada Child Benefit in 2016. This scheme replaced a complicated system of income tax credits and provided generous monthly transfers to low- and moderate-income households, covering an estimated 3.7 million households in 2018.54 Transfer levels are highest for the lowest earning households and are sensitive to the number of children and special needs (e.g., disabilities). Recent years have seen a surge of empirical evidence on the positive impacts of the Canada Child Benefit: It has lifted approximately 250,000 children out of poverty and increased household expenditure on childcare, school supplies, shelter, food and clothing.55 The Canada Child Benefit has also reduced food insecurity in households with young children.56 58 As shown in Part 3 of this report, the effectiveness of the social protection system of Greece has nearly tripled since 2012. Despite worsening overall living conditions, evidenced by a sharp drop in average wages, the country managed to reduce the share of children living in poverty by 17 per cent.57 At the beginning of the past decade, Greece was one of the few European countries without a social protection programme guaranteeing a minimum living standard to households with low or no income. In 2014, the Government started the gradual roll-out of the Guaranteed Minimum Income programme, which reached nationwide implementation by 2020. Although this means-tested programme does not specifically target households with children, a recent UNICEF analysis has found that it reached nearly 160,000 children in 2021.58 60 A lesson on the power of social protection during crises emerges from the United States, where the largest income support programme for households with children is a tax credit scheme called the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The CTC is an important source of support but has historically suffered from shortcomings: Due to its design, children in households with no or low earnings may be excluded from the programme or not qualify for the full benefit. The United States Government decided to shield households with children from income losses triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic by temporarily adapting the design of the CTC. Between June and December 2021, the CTC transformed into a monthly flat-rate payment of US$3,000 or US$3,600 (depending on age) for each child. The transfer was made ‘refundable’ – in practice, this meant a more equitable and effective distribution of transfers because households with low or no earnings could benefit from the full amount. The expansion of the CTC had an impressive, albeit temporary, effect on child poverty. In 2021, the monthly payments cut child poverty by 46 per cent and lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty.59 During the extended CTC period, child poverty in the United States was at ,62 46 Child Poverty in the Midst of Wealth Innocenti Report Card 18