Government & Civic

Beginner

9 min read 7 stepsMay 8, 2026Verified May 2026

How to Apply for Kinship Care Benefits

A walkthrough for grandparents and relative caregivers applying for the financial help, food assistance, and medical coverage for a child in care.

At a Glance

Find Your State's Kinship Navigator or 2-1-1 Hotline

~50s

Before filling out any form, call your state's kinship navigator program if one exists. A kinship navigator is a trained staff member who knows every benefit your state offers, can tell you which ones you qualify for, and will walk you through the applications over the phone for free. To find yours, type your state name plus kinship navigator into a search engine, or call the national Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116. If your state does not have a navigator, call 2-1-1, which is a free, confidential national helpline run by United Way. A 2-1-1 operator can refer you to local programs and sometimes even fill out forms with you. Write down the names and phone numbers of every person you speak to in your binder for the child.

Quick Tip

If English is not your first language, both 2-1-1 and most kinship navigator lines have interpreter services in Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, and other languages at no cost.

Apply for a TANF Child-Only Grant at Your County Office

~55s

Visit or call your county Department of Social Services, sometimes called the Department of Family and Children Services or the Department of Human Services. The phone number is on the front of your county phone book or on your state's website. Tell them you want to apply for a TANF child-only grant for a grandchild in your care. The child-only version of TANF looks only at the child's income, not yours, so even if you receive a healthy Social Security check, the grandchild can still qualify. The grant is paid monthly, either by direct deposit or on an EBT card, and ranges from $150 to about $500 per child depending on your state. There is no work requirement for the grandparent. Bring the child's Social Security card, birth certificate, and proof the child lives with you.

Warning

Some county workers will assume you want adult TANF, which has work and income requirements. Be clear: you are applying for the child-only grant. Ask for a supervisor if the worker tries to count your income.

Sign the Child Up for Medicaid or CHIP

~50s

Children in kinship care almost always qualify for free Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, called CHIP, regardless of the grandparent's income. To apply, go to healthcare.gov and click on the link that says Medicaid and CHIP, or apply directly through your state's Medicaid website. Many states also let you apply at the same time you apply for TANF or SNAP, so ask about a combined application. Medicaid covers doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, dental care, and mental health services. CHIP covers families who earn slightly more than Medicaid allows, with a small monthly premium of around $20 to $50 per child. Coverage usually starts within thirty days of applying. The child's insurance card will arrive in the mail.

Quick Tip

Ask the Medicaid office to back-date coverage to the first day the child arrived in your home if any medical bills built up before you applied. Many states will pay retroactive bills for up to three months.

Apply for SNAP Food Assistance Together as a Household

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SNAP, formerly called food stamps, is paid on an EBT debit card you use at the grocery store. When a child joins your household, your monthly SNAP amount goes up because the program counts more mouths to feed. Even if you were not on SNAP before, adding a child often pushes your household into eligibility. Apply at your county Department of Social Services, or online at your state's benefits portal. Bring proof of all household income, rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, and medical expenses if you are over 60 or disabled because those reduce your countable income. SNAP benefits in 2026 average about $200 per person per month, although the exact amount varies with income and expenses. Benefits arrive monthly on the EBT card.

Quick Tip

Seniors over 60 qualify for a simplified SNAP application in many states, called Elderly Simplified Application Project, which requires less paperwork and is renewed only every three years instead of every six months.

Sign Up for WIC, School Meals, and Other Targeted Programs

~49s

If the grandchild is under age five, sign up for WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. WIC provides healthy foods like milk, cheese, fruit, vegetables, and infant formula, plus nutrition counseling. Apply at your local WIC office, found through fns.usda.gov/wic. For school-age children, ask the school to put the child on the free or reduced-price meal program. This is automatic in many states because TANF and SNAP enrollment qualifies the child. If you live in a state with universal free school meals, no application is needed. Other helpful programs include Head Start for preschoolers, Low Income Home Energy Help Program for utility bills, the Lifeline phone program, and your local food bank, which welcomes kinship families without asking probing questions.

Warning

Do not be embarrassed to use a food bank in the first month after a grandchild arrives. Food banks were built for unexpected family changes exactly like yours.

Look Into Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payments

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If the child was placed with you by a court or a child welfare agency, you may qualify for kinship guardianship help payments, often called GAP or Kin-GAP. These payments are larger than TANF, often $400 to $900 per child per month, and continue until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school. To qualify, the child usually must have been in your care as a licensed kinship foster home for at least six months before you became the legal guardian. Talk to a social worker at the county Department of Social Services about the steps. Some states extend GAP to relative caregivers who never went through the foster system, under a related program called Guardianship Help for Relatives. The application is detailed and benefits from a kinship navigator or an attorney from a senior legal aid program.

Quick Tip

If a child was removed from a parent by court order and placed in your home, ask the social worker right away about licensed kinship foster care. The licensing process pays a foster care stipend while it is in progress, often $600 to $1,000 per month per child.

Claim the Child on Your Federal and State Taxes

~57s

If the grandchild lives with you for more than half the year and you provide more than half the child's financial support, you can claim the child as a qualifying child on your federal tax return. This unlocks the Child Tax Credit, worth up to $2,000 per child in 2026, plus the Credit for Other Dependents, the Earned Income Tax Credit if you have any work income, and head of household filing status that lowers your tax rate. Many grandparents do not file taxes because their only income is Social Security. But you can still file a return to claim a refundable Child Tax Credit even with no taxable income. Free tax help is available from the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Help program at 1-800-906-9887, and from AARP Foundation Tax-Aide at aarpfoundation.org/taxaide, both of which serve seniors and kinship caregivers at no charge.

Warning

If the child's biological parents also want to claim the child, only one return can succeed. Talk to the parents first if possible, and document your support payments in case the IRS asks for proof.

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When a child comes to live with you suddenly, the daily costs add up quickly: clothes, school supplies, food, doctor visits, gas to and from activities, and the bigger items like a new bed or a booster seat. Many grandparents are stunned to learn how much it costs to raise a child in 2026, especially on a fixed retirement income. The good news is that several federal and state programs were built to help kinship caregivers cover these costs. Most grandparents qualify for at least one program, and many qualify for several at once. You do not need to give up custody to a state agency to receive help, and most benefits go directly to the child, not to you. So they do not affect your own Social Security or Medicare.

The four main programs every kinship caregiver should know about are: TANF child-only grants from your state's Department of Social Services, SNAP food help, Medicaid health insurance, and WIC nutritional support for children under five. Some states also offer kinship guardianship help payments under a federal program called GAP, which can pay $400 to $900 a month per child if you become the child's legal guardian. Additional supports include free or reduced school meals, the Child Tax Credit on your federal taxes, the federal Children's Health Insurance Program known as CHIP, and Title IV-E foster care payments if the child was placed with you by a court. Every dollar adds up, and learning the system once pays off for years.

The most overlooked benefit for grandparent caregivers is the TANF child-only grant. TANF stands for Temporary Help for Needy Families and most people associate it with single parents, but every state also offers a child-only version that ignores the caregiver's income entirely and looks only at the child's income, which is usually zero. A child-only grant pays $150 to $500 a month per child in most states, with no work requirement and no limit on how long you can receive it. As of 2025, only about one in three eligible grandparent families actually claims the grant, mostly because nobody told them it existed. This guide makes sure you do not miss it.

Before you begin, gather a few key documents in one folder: the child's Social Security card, the child's birth certificate, proof you live at your address, proof of the child living with you (often a school enrollment letter or a doctor's note), your own ID, and your most recent Social Security benefit letter or proof of any income. Have the child's biological parents' names, addresses, and Social Security numbers if you know them, although you do not need to know them to apply. Plan for about three to five hours of paperwork spread over a week. Many states now accept applications online through a single benefits portal, which cuts the time roughly in half.

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Official Resources

USA.gov — Government Services SSA — Social Security Benefits.gov IRS Free File

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