Hayley’s Story: The Family Affordability Tax Credit Is How We Made It
Colorado Must Save the Family Affordability Tax Credit to Help Moms Make Ends Meet
While finishing her bachelor’s degree, Hayley, a Fort Collins single mom of three, supported her family through Colorado state grants.
“It’s how we financially survived,” said Hayley, whose kids are 16, 12, and 6.
Grants like the Pell supported her while she worked toward the degree she believes will change her family’s future. But in her final semester, there was a catch. She took 9 credits — including her thesis and capstone —instead of 12. She no longer qualified for grant funding, despite carrying a full workload. Suddenly, the support she relied on disappeared.
Just in time, Colorado’s Family Affordability Tax Credit stepped in.
When the support Hayley relied on disappeared, the Family Affordability Tax Credit stepped in
When she filed her taxes in April 2025, Hayley received more than $7,000 back from the state — mostly through the Family Affordability Tax Credit.
“It was massively impactful,” she said. “I don’t know how we would have paid our bills otherwise.”
The Family Affordability Tax Credit covered rent and basic expenses and allowed her to stay enrolled in school. It sustained them through the final semester and the summer that followed.
“By the end of the summer, we were at square one again,” she said. “But that’s how we made it.”
Hayley’s story reflects what the data show. According to new research from The Women’s Foundation of Colorado and Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 28% of single-woman-led households with children under 18 live in poverty. Tax credits, including the Family Affordability Tax Credit, helped cut child poverty for families like Hayley’s in Colorado by 40.5% in 2025, according to a draft report from Washington University and Appalachian State University researchers.
Yet families could lose access to the credit when they file in 2027 as Colorado faces another $850 million budget shortfall during the 2026 legislative session.
Yet families could lose access to the credit when they file taxes in 2027
For the past decade, Colorado lawmakers have prioritized tax credits for working families, including the Family Affordability Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. These policies put money directly into the hands of families who spend it in their communities — on rent, groceries, child care, and school activities.
But in July 2025, Congress passed a sweeping federal tax overhaul known as H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Because Colorado’s tax code conforms with federal law, the changes immediately reduced state revenue — threatening programs like the Family Affordability Tax Credit.
Advocates across Colorado, including The Women’s Foundation of Colorado and several public policy grantee partners, support a 2026 tax policy package that would restore a version of the Family Affordability Tax Credit and protect families from falling back into poverty. In fact, passing the four-bill package is a WFCO policy priority during the 2026 legislative session.
“Our state shouldn’t be cutting tax credits for hard-working families to preserve tax breaks for corporations,” said WFCO Vice President of Programs Louise Myrland.
The Family Affordability Tax Credit helps Hayley give her kids a “normal, stable childhood”
When the Family Affordability Tax Credit arrived in April 2025, it did more than cover bills. It gave Hayley breathing room. The credit helped her:
- Finish a yoga teacher certification
- Apply to graduate school
- Sustain her family while she searched for work
- Keep a roof over their heads and food on the table
- Keep her kids in activities
Her son stayed in guitar lessons. Her daughter continued her gymnastics training. Hayley works at Denver Broncos concession stands on gamedays to help cover the costs in addition to applying the Family Affordability Tax Credit.
“It enabled us to keep our lives the same,” Hayley said, who has her kids 90% of the time since she divorced in 2020.
While they were married, her husband worked and Hayley stayed at home with the kids. Whenever she tried to further her education or blaze a career path, including through doula certification and a real estate license, the jobs required her to be on call and as the children’s caretaker it wasn’t feasible.
Getting an education was always about stability
Her divorce attorney — a woman who had also attended law school as a single mom — took Hayley’s case pro bono.
“I’m going to fight for you to get what you need,” her attorney told her. “You need a degree.” On graduation day, Hayley called to say thank you. “She believed in me, and she believed me.”
Education had always been Hayley’s dream. Today, she has her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in somatics, plus double minors in performance and environmental studies.
Currently, she’s working with the Berthoud Chamber of Commerce and hopes to pursue her master’s degree to become a licensed clinical social worker. She wants to use her degree for advocacy and cultivating community and women’s spaces.
“I feel like we function in these isolated units outside of community – but we need to be in supported community to thrive,” she said.
As she works toward her next goal, she’s keeping her fingers crossed that the Family Affordability Tax Credit will still be there to help single moms like her. She quotes sociologist and author Jessica Calarco: “Other countries have social safety nets. The US has women.”
Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women – Jessica Calarco
In the meantime, she is grateful for support she’s received from critical community programs, including United Way of Larimer County’s (UWLC) monthly cash assistance WomenRise program, funded in part by The Women’s Foundation of Colorado’s WINcome grant. She also has received help along the way from Project Self-Sufficiency, a Fort Collins nonprofit organization that helps single parents achieve economic independence and WomenGive – United Way of Larimer County that provides child care scholarships for single moms pursuing higher education.
Her goal is to reach financial independence
“My goal,” she said, “is to finally reach financial independence.”
For Hayley and thousands of women like her the Family Affordability Tax Credit isn’t just a line item in a budget. It’s rent paid, groceries on the table, a degree earned, and children who get to grow up with stability.
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