Certainly there is a cost in the delay, and the expanded CTC had monthly payments partly for that reason.

Next time, why not weekly, like paychecks? What's the downside in the electronic transfer age?

Which they structured in a way that created this process for determining how much of the monthly payment families would have to pay back if a child left their unit. (Although would be interesting to know how many parents were caught up in this, maybe not many).