Video: Tax Credits Help a Mom Get Back on Her Feet

It's her daughter's fifth birthday party and Heather Rude-Turner is being pulled in a dozen different directions.

There are burgers to prep, snacks to lay out, and visiting relatives to talk with, not to mention the homework she'll tackle after the party so she can receive her Bachelor's degree in a couple months. Heather's daughter, Naomi, and son, Isaac, are laughing as they jump around with two large balloons in the living room.

It's a scene that was unimaginable to Heather just a few years ago, when she left her abusive husband. She didn't have a job or a home but she eventually found both. Her church pitched in and so did the federal government, in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Without the EITC, Heather says, she wouldn't have made it back on her feet.

"Having that extra income, the EITC, gave me that extra cushion to take care of our basic needs and then save some away," said Heather, who used her most recent EITC check to pay bills and her college expenses.

In 2010, the EITC, which low-income workers apply for when they file their taxes, helped lift 5.4 million people out of poverty. Learn more about the EITC and Heather's story in the video below.

Laura Elizabeth Pohl is multimedia manager at Bread for the World. You can follow her on Twitter at @lauraepohl.

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