But the EITC can also lead to something more significant than money this tax season—a feeling of social inclusion and citizenship that might otherwise elude them. According to a new study, people who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides bigger refunds to low-income workers with children, are, for a time, privy to the optimism of the American dream, a sharp contrast to the feelings of stigmatization associated with receiving government benefits.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is, for many, “a just reward for work, an opportunity for upward mobility, and a chance to provide recipients’ children with some of their 'wants' and not just their 'needs',” write the authors of the study, "Dignity and Dreams: What the Earned Income Tax Credit Means to Low-Income Families,” published in the April issue of American Sociological Review. “This meaning encourages spending patterns that create feelings of social inclusion and citizenship.”

The EITC has been found to have a host of benefits — encouraging household heads to work, improving health, and boosting school achievement. In some cases, the EITC can be equivalent to three months' worth of income for filers.

But the EITC also has an intangible effect, say researchers Jennifer Sykes, Katrin Kriz, Kathryn Edin, and Sarah Halpern-Meekin. It allows the working poor to plan for upward mobility. Though they may not be able to spend the refund on the house downpayment or savings bond that they hope to, even the feeling that they could make a big change in their finances is a big mental boost.

To conduct the study, lead author Sykes became a certified tax preparer and talked to low-income workers while helping complete their taxes at a site in Boston. She and her colleagues talked to 115 household heads who received refunds of at least $1,000.

They found that about a quarter of the EITC money was used to pay down debts or pressing bills. About a tenth is used for “treats” or extra consumption, and the rest—nearly 40 percent—of the remaining refund is used to purchase things associated with upward mobility, such as durable goods like a new fridge or a car.

Even the ability to purchase small "treats" around tax time had positive social associations, they found, allowing families to feel included in the same league as Americans who spend on dinner or trips without thinking twice about it.

One mother told the researchers that she can usually provide her children with what they need, but not what they want. With the refund, she was able to take them to T.J. Maxx and let them pick out their own clothes.

“It might have been a couple of dollars more expensive, or it might have been even double the price, but the point was they got what they needed and at the same time they felt like a million bucks. Because they got actually what they wanted. My kids felt like a million dollars,” she said.

"Just having that money, extra money like that, it's a good thing," another woman told the researchers. "Just going into the store and just basically buying what you like, you know, not necessarily what you need. ... I'm 43 now. What have I done [for myself]? I want to live comfortably!"