“All of the hype about the fiscal cliff, certainly the national media is making this sound like there’s Armageddon on Jan. 1. That’s not going to happen. But for low-income families, they’re going to feel it the worst at the beginning,” said Linn, who works for the nonprofit anti-poverty group Results and its education arm, the Results Educational Fund.

The working poor will immediately feel the pinch from smaller paychecks if the payroll tax cut goes away as scheduled at the end of the year, and annual incomes will be bruised with the loss of the earned income tax credit and child tax credit, Linn said.

In Iowa, the federal government would pay for child care subsidies for about 700 fewer children, according to a July fiscal cliff report by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat.

A $4.6 million cut to the Head Start pre-school program could mean “156 Head Start jobs lost and 747 fewer children served” in Iowa, the report says.

Health care services for more than 25,000 Iowa women, children and families could end because of the $502,000 cut to Iowa’s maternal and child health program, the Harkin report says.

Tax credits that support low-income working families, and reduce the need for welfare, are set to expire at the end of the year. About 214,000 low-income Iowa households benefited from the earned income tax credit in 2010, and 154,000 benefited from the child tax credit, according to the Iowa Policy Project and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Together, the two tax credits lifted about 38,000 Iowa children out of poverty each year from 2009 to 2011.