How to Get Paid as a Family Caregiver in Connecticut (2026)

Connecticut offers several legitimate ways to get paid as a family caregiver, and the one built around a live-in caregiver is Adult Family Living. This program pays a caregiver who lives in the home with an older or disabled adult, often a family member or friend, a stipend that the DSS-sponsored MyPlaceCT site describes as non-taxable. It sits alongside the state's Medicaid self-direction programs, where the person receiving care hires and directs their own attendant. Almost every route runs through the Department of Social Services (DSS), and each one has its own rule about who can be paid.1

The rule that trips up the most families is who can be hired, and DSS is unusually quiet about it. DSS's published pages for Adult Family Living and Community First Choice don't say whether a spouse, a conservator, or a legal guardian may be the paid caregiver. For Community First Choice, the legislature's Office of Legislative Research (OLR) says participants may hire certain relatives and friends, but spouses and legal guardians are excluded from receiving compensation; that is a research summary, not a DSS rule.2 So confirm your own case with DSS or the intermediary agency, in writing, rather than settling it from a website. DSS does publish two relationship rules. For Adult Family Living, its April 2024 draft PCA Waiver renewal says the caregiver may be a relative of the client as long as they are not a legally liable relative. For Personal Care Attendant Services under the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders, the rule is stricter: DSS states that family members are not eligible to be paid for taking care of relatives, with very rare exceptions.3,1

This guide lays out every legitimate way to be paid as a family caregiver in Connecticut for 2026: who can be hired under each program, how the pay works, and how to pick the route that fits your family.

The Short Version

If you are an adult child, grandchild, other relative, or close friend of an older or disabled Connecticut resident, you have two routes to ask about. If you live with them and they need ongoing care, look at Adult Family Living, which pays a stipend MyPlaceCT describes as non-taxable; DSS's draft PCA Waiver renewal lets a relative be the caregiver as long as they are not a legally liable relative.1 If you provide hands-on personal care, ask DSS whether your loved one could hire you through Community First Choice, where the member self-directs their own attendant. The legislature's Office of Legislative Research says CFC participants may hire certain relatives and friends, but that is a research summary, not a DSS rule, so get DSS's answer for your relationship in writing.2

If you are a spouse, don't plan on Medicaid pay yet. DSS does not publish a spousal rule for Adult Family Living, Community First Choice, or the PCA Waiver. For CFC, the legislature's Office of Legislative Research says spouses and legal guardians are excluded from receiving compensation, and a specialist (non-state) source says spouses are excluded from AFL.2 For Personal Care Attendant Services under CHCPE, DSS states that family members are not eligible to be paid for taking care of relatives, with very rare exceptions. Ask DSS directly about your own case.1,3 The route in this guide that clearly accepts a spouse is the VA's PCAFC, if your spouse is an eligible veteran.5

If your loved one is a veteran, check the VA programs first; PCAFC accepts a spouse as the paid caregiver. And if your family has enough private assets, a written personal services contract can pay a caregiver now while documenting the arrangement for later Medicaid planning.

The rest of this guide walks through each pathway in detail.

What Makes Connecticut Different: Adult Family Living and CHCPE Self-Direction

Two features set Connecticut apart. The first is Adult Family Living (AFL). AFL pays a caregiver who lives in the home a stipend for personal care and support, which MyPlaceCT describes as non-taxable. The caregiver moves into the care recipient's home, or the recipient moves in with the caregiver, and the stipend is based on which of four levels of care DSS assesses. AFL carries costs the payment does not cover: under DSS's draft PCA Waiver renewal, AFL payments are not made for room and board, items of comfort or convenience, or home maintenance, upkeep and improvement. If your loved one lives in your home, the two of you agree the room and board amount between yourselves. Separately, clients on the state-funded portion of CHCPE must pay a 9% copay, and failing to pay it ends their CHCPE services.1

What families miss is how little DSS spells out about who AFL excludes. The MyPlaceCT and CHCPE pages say the caregiver is often a family member or friend. DSS's April 2024 draft PCA Waiver renewal adds that the caregiver may be a relative of the client as long as they are not a legally liable relative, and that the service may be provided in the home of either the caregiver or the participant, whichever the participant prefers. The draft doesn't define "legally liable relative." Its legally-responsible-individual section says such a person typically includes a spouse, and its default rule is that, except at the State's option and in extraordinary circumstances, payment may not be made to one for personal care they would ordinarily provide; the posted draft doesn't show which option Connecticut chose. None of these pages says in words whether a spouse, conservator, legal guardian, or health care representative may hold the paid role.1 A specialist publisher, not the state, says that while relatives can be the AFL caregiver, spouses are excluded, so a spouse should not plan on AFL pay without DSS confirming otherwise.1 AFL is also a separate line item from Personal Care Attendant Services under CHCPE, and for those services DSS states that family members are not eligible to be paid for taking care of relatives, with very rare exceptions.1

The second feature is how Connecticut handles self-direction. The Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE) is the state's main home-care program for older adults. An applicant must meet all four of DSS's requirements: be 65 or older, be a Connecticut resident, be at risk of nursing home placement, and meet the program's financial eligibility criteria. Clients on CHCPE's state-funded portion pay a 9% copay. CHCPE used to let participants self-direct their own personal care, but it no longer does that directly. Instead, Medicaid-funded CHCPE participants now self-direct their personal care through Community First Choice. That changes who manages the worker, not whether a relative may be paid.1,3

Payroll for Connecticut's self-directed programs runs through a fiscal agent, and the agent is assigned by program rather than statewide. Allied Community Resources, the prior fiscal intermediary, lists the agents to contact: Aris Solutions (866-970-3301) for CT VDC programs, Aris Solutions (800-798-1658 ext. 4) for the Southwest or Southcentral respite programs, and CD Choices (855-597-3596) for the North Central, West or East respite programs. That list is the outgoing vendor's own page, not a DSS publication; DSS's Community First Choice page names no fiscal agent, and DSS re-bids the payroll contract periodically, so confirm the current vendor with DSS or your program before you enroll.3

The Connecticut Paid Family Caregiver Pathways

1. Adult Family Living (AFL): The Live-In Caregiver Stipend

Who pays: DSS, through the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders and the Personal Care Assistance Waiver.

Who can be paid: A caregiver who lives in the home, often a family member or friend. DSS's draft PCA Waiver renewal says the caregiver may be a relative as long as they are not a legally liable relative. DSS does not say in words whether a spouse, conservator, legal guardian, or health care representative may hold the role, so confirm your own relationship with DSS or the intermediary agency.1

What it is: AFL pays a caregiver who lives in the home a stipend to provide personal care and support. The caregiver and care recipient live together, and a state-authorized intermediary agency oversees the services and trains and supports the caregiver.1 For how live-in models like this one work in other states, see our guide to structured family caregiving.

What you get: DSS assesses the care recipient at one of four levels of care based on how complex the care is, and the stipend is based on that level. Neither DSS's CHCPE page nor the AFL program page publishes a stipend amount, so get the figure from DSS or the sponsor agency. MyPlaceCT describes the stipend as non-taxable.1

What it costs: The AFL payment doesn't cover room and board. If your loved one lives in your home, you and they agree that amount between yourselves. Separately, clients on the state-funded portion of CHCPE must pay a 9% copay, and failing to pay it ends their CHCPE services.1

Eligibility, recipient: The recipient must be eligible for CHCPE or the PCA Waiver. Generally that means being over 65 or having a disability, needing help with at least one activity of daily living, and meeting the income requirements.1

Eligibility, caregiver: Must live in the same home as the care recipient. The draft waiver lets the service be provided in either your home or theirs, whichever the participant prefers. Ask DSS whether your particular relationship qualifies.1

Best for: A relative or close friend who already lives with, or is willing to move in with, an older or disabled loved one who needs daily care.

2. Community First Choice (CFC): Self-Directed Personal Care

Who pays: Connecticut Medicaid (HUSKY), administered by DSS.

Who can be paid: DSS's CFC page does not say who may be hired.3 The legislature's Office of Legislative Research (OLR) says participants "may hire certain relatives and friends," and that spouses and legal guardians "are excluded from receiving compensation under the program." An older 2016 OLR report also excludes legally liable relatives and conservators. These are the legislature's research summaries, not DSS rules, and they don't say which relatives qualify, so confirm your relationship with DSS in writing.2

What it is: DSS describes Community First Choice as an optional State Plan service, created by the Affordable Care Act, that lets eligible individuals access personal attendant care and other services and supports through self-direction. Don't assume it will stay waitlist-free: a specialist publisher calls CFC an entitlement with no wait list, but DSS's own CFC page links a "CFC Proposed Participant Transition to Waivers FAQs" document.3 That DSS FAQ says the Governor is proposing to move CFC participants to a 1915(c) waiver, a new waiver, or some other authority, with a proposed effective date of April 1, 2027.2

Eligibility, recipient: A Connecticut Medicaid member. OLR describes CFC as open to Medicaid beneficiaries who can self-direct PCA services and would otherwise require an institutional level of care (for example, nursing home care), and its 2018 report says there is no age requirement; confirm the test with DSS.2

Eligibility, caregiver: Be hired by the member. Confirm with DSS whether your relationship to the member is eligible.

How you get paid: Through the program's fiscal agent, which runs payroll. DSS's CFC page names no fiscal agent, so ask DSS which vendor handles your case.3

Best for: A relative or friend providing hands-on personal care to a Medicaid-eligible loved one, once DSS has confirmed the relationship qualifies.

3. The Personal Care Assistance (PCA) Waiver

Who pays: Connecticut Medicaid, administered by the DSS Community Options Unit.

Who can be paid: Neither CMS's waiver factsheet nor Connecticut 211's PCA Waiver page says whether a family member may be the paid PCA, so ask the DSS Community Options Unit.4

What it is: The PCA Waiver is a Medicaid 1915(c) home and community-based services waiver that CMS describes as serving individuals with physical disabilities ages 18-64 who meet a nursing facility level of care. Its services include agency-based personal care assistant services, mental health counseling, adult day health, and adult family living.4

Eligibility, recipient: Connecticut 211, which names DSS as its source, lists adults ages 18 through 64 with disabilities who are institutionalized or would be without PCA services, have deficits in at least two activities of daily living, and lack community supports to live independently. Income must be at or below 300% of the maximum SSI benefit, with asset restrictions, and applicants must have Medicaid, have applied, or spend down to the Medicaid limit. People eligible under Medicaid for the Employed Disabled are not subject to those income and asset restrictions. Confirm these tests with DSS.4

One thing to plan around: Available slots are filled in the order referrals are received, provided all eligibility criteria are met, and applicants' names go on a waiting list. To start, call the DSS Community Options Unit. The waiver has two delivery routes: agency-based PCA services, or self-directing your PCA services under the Community First Choice option, where a fiscal contractor handles the employer tax responsibilities.4

Best for: A working-age adult with a significant disability who needs ongoing personal care and wants to direct their own attendant.

4. Money Follows the Person (MFP): The Bridge Home, Not a Paycheck

Who gets paid: not you. MFP is the one item on this list that pays no caregiver, and DSS says so in its own program flyer: "MFP does not give money directly to you." Treat it as the on-ramp to the routes above, not as a way to be paid.7

Who pays: MFP is a federal demonstration program, with funding provided by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the State of Connecticut; DSS publishes Connecticut's program materials.7

What it is: Money Follows the Person (MFP) helps a Medicaid-eligible person living in a nursing home, hospital, or other qualified institution move into a qualified residence: a home the person or a family member owns or leases, an apartment, or a small group home with no more than four unrelated residents. DSS's flyer adds that the person should have an interest in living in the community and must be eligible for one of the community service packages. The ongoing programs each have their own gate: CHCPE requires age 65 or older, the PCA Waiver serves ages 18 to 64 only, and Community First Choice is the self-direction option.7

How long the facility stay has to be, and why you may hear two answers: Federal law sets the minimum institutional stay at at least 60 consecutive days (the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 cut it from 90). But Connecticut's own DSS flyer still tells readers "at least three months." If your loved one sits between those two answers, don't act on either one: ask the DSS Community Options Unit to confirm the stay requirement it is applying to your case in writing before you build a plan on it, because a family told they qualify at 60 days can be turned away against the state's published rule.7

Two limits to plan around: The dollar ceiling on community services is the cost of the nursing home care your loved one is leaving, but the actual budget is set by need, and no one automatically gets the full limit. And the home and community-based services MFP itself provides run for 365 days after the move. That's the clock to watch: line up the ongoing program your loved one qualifies for before the MFP year ends.7

Best for: A family bringing a loved one home from a facility who then wants to set up paid family caregiving through one of the programs above.

5. VA Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC)

Who can be paid: A designated Primary Family Caregiver of an eligible veteran, which can be a spouse, adult child, parent, or other family member.5

2026 stipend: The PCAFC stipend starts from the federal General Schedule GS-4, Step 1 annual rate for the locality where the veteran lives, divided by 12, then multiplied by a stipend factor under 38 CFR 71.40(c)(4)(i). Two different schedules set that factor:5

• Current program (the veteran meets the criteria at 38 CFR 71.20(a)): 0.625, or 1.00 if VA determines the veteran is unable to self-sustain in the community.5
• Legacy participant or legacy applicant (38 CFR 71.20(b) or (c)): the factor comes from the sum of the veteran's 2019 clinical ratings, 1.00 at a sum of 21 or higher, 0.625 at 13 to 20, and 0.25 at 1 to 12. No self-sustain determination is needed, so a legacy household rated 21 or higher earns the full 1.00 on the rating sum alone.5

A veteran who meets both is paid the higher amount, and a legacy participant under 71.20(b) cannot be paid less than the caregiver was eligible for on September 30, 2020, while the veteran stays at the address VA has on record. The legacy provisions end October 1, 2028. Confirm which schedule applies, and your exact stipend, with your VA Caregiver Support Coordinator.5

Veteran eligibility, first screen: VA lists four requirements that must all be true: a VA disability rating (individual or combined) of 70% or higher, a discharge or date of medical discharge, a need for at least 6 months of continuous, in-person personal care services, and enrollment in VA health care. Meeting them is not approval; you and the veteran apply together and VA decides.5

Why it stands out: VA names a spouse among the family members who can be the paid caregiver.5

Best for: Families of an eligible veteran where one person provides substantial daily care.

6. VA Veteran-Directed Care (VDC)

Who can be paid: Workers the veteran hires and supervises, and VA says those can be family, friends, or neighbors. VA's description of VDC doesn't mention spouses, so ask the VA before counting on it.8

How it works: The veteran, or their representative, manages a flexible budget and uses it to hire and supervise their own workers.8

Availability: Veteran-Directed Care is open to enrolled veterans who are eligible for community care and meet the clinical criteria, where it is available. VA medical centers deliver it through aging and disability network agencies, such as area agencies on aging or aging and disability resource centers; through an options counselor, the agency handles assessment and care planning, arranges fiscal management services, and provides ongoing support. Ask your social worker at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (West Haven and Newington) whether VDC is available for you.8

Best for: A Connecticut veteran with daily-living needs who wants to hire and supervise their own caregiver, such as an adult child, friend, or neighbor.

7. VA Aid and Attendance Pension

Who is paid: The veteran or surviving spouse receives the pension, not the caregiver; a family caregiver can be paid out of it under a private arrangement.9

2026 maximums (effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026): VA publishes these as Maximum Annual Pension Rates, which are ceilings, not payments. The pension is the MAPR less the claimant's income for VA purposes (non-reimbursable medical expenses above 5% of the MAPR can reduce that income), paid monthly as that remainder divided by 12 and rounded down to the whole dollar. A single veteran with Aid and Attendance receives up to $29,093 per year; a veteran with one dependent up to $34,488 per year; a surviving spouse with Aid and Attendance up to $18,697 per year. Confirm current figures on the VA pension rate page before applying.9

Eligibility: A veteran or surviving spouse who qualifies for VA pension and for Aid and Attendance, and whose net worth is at or under VA's limit of $163,699 from December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2026. Net worth counts the claimant's and dependents' assets and income for VA purposes, but not the primary residence, the car, or basic home items. VA also looks back 36 months for asset transfers below fair market value. Your Veterans Service Officer can confirm the service and medical tests.9

How caregivers get paid: The pension goes to the veteran, who then pays the family caregiver, ideally under a written caregiver agreement. Connecticut's town and regional Veterans Service Officers, coordinated by the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs (CT DVA), help file at no cost; avoid for-profit pension consultants who charge a fee.

Best for: A wartime veteran or surviving spouse with income and assets under the limit who needs help with daily activities.

8. Private Personal Services Contract

Who can be paid: Any family member, including an adult child, sibling, or other relative, under a written contract. If you are a spouse, ask a Connecticut elder-law attorney whether this route fits your situation.

What it is: A written, arm's-length contract between the care recipient (or their legal representative) and the caregiver, signed before care begins. It should spell out the services, the schedule, a reasonable and customary hourly rate documented against local agency quotes, how and when the caregiver is paid, and a requirement that the caregiver keep daily logs and report the income on their taxes.

Why the format matters: Connecticut applies a 60-month Medicaid look-back to people receiving nursing-facility care or home and community-based services under a Medicaid waiver or the Connecticut Home Care program. A transfer for less than fair market value in the 60 months before the parent is institutionalized or applies while institutionalized, or while the application is pending, creates a penalty period. Paying a family caregiver is not automatically a penalized transfer: federal law excuses a transfer when a satisfactory showing is made to the State that the individual intended to dispose of the assets either at fair market value or for other valuable consideration. Ask a Connecticut elder-law attorney how to document that intent before payments start. The penalty divisor (the average monthly cost to a private patient of Connecticut nursing-facility care) is a figure DSS sets and updates, so get the current one from DSS or a Connecticut elder-law attorney. One exception matters to caregiving children: deeding the home to a son or daughter who lived there for at least two years immediately before the parent was institutionalized, and whose care kept the parent at home during those years, is an allowable transfer, but DSS decides whether the care qualified.10

Best for: Families with enough assets to private-pay a caregiver who also want to preserve eligibility for future Medicaid planning. Work with a Connecticut elder-law attorney to draft the contract.

Comparing the Connecticut Paid Family Caregiver Pathways

How to Choose a Connecticut Pathway

Start with the care recipient's situation:

Where to Get Help in Connecticut

Tax Considerations

How caregiver pay is taxed depends on the program, so check each one with a tax preparer.

• Adult Family Living pays a stipend that MyPlaceCT, the DSS-sponsored site that describes the program, calls non-taxable.1
• PCA Waiver pay may be federally excludable under the IRS notice below, if you give the care in your own home where the participant lives. CFC pay is not a waiver payment, so don't assume it is excludable.6
• VA PCAFC and Aid and Attendance, and private contracts: this guide's sources don't settle their tax treatment, so ask a tax preparer.

IRS Notice 2014-7: The notice lets a caregiver exclude Medicaid waiver pay from federal gross income as difficulty-of-care payments, related or not, and it turns on two conditions. The payment has to come under a Section 1915(c) home and community-based services waiver, for care under a plan of care, and you have to provide the care in your own home, where the person you care for lives and where you actually reside rather than just where you work. A caregiver who keeps a separate home where they regularly reside doesn't qualify.

Connecticut's fit here is narrower than it looks. DSS identifies the PCA Waiver and the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders 1915(c) waiver as section 1915(c) waivers, so those sit inside the notice's frame. But CHCPE also has a section 1915(i) portion, a Medicaid State Plan authority rather than a 1915(c) waiver, and Community First Choice is not a waiver either: DSS describes it as an optional Medicaid state plan service created by the Affordable Care Act. For a state program that isn't a 1915(c) waiver, the IRS commits to nothing more than that the treatment "will depend on the nature of the payments and the purpose and design of the program." That's a maybe, not a yes. So don't assume your CFC wages are excludable. Take your program's paperwork to a tax preparer familiar with the rule before you file.6

Connecticut state income tax: Connecticut has a progressive personal income tax with rates from 2% up to 6.99%, administered by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Connecticut adjusted gross income starts from your federal adjusted gross income, so pay excluded from federal gross income under Notice 2014-7 doesn't enter that starting point unless a Connecticut modification on Form CT-1040 Schedule 1 adds it back. Confirm the current brackets with DRS, since the thresholds change periodically.11

Common Misconceptions

"If Mom has Medicare, I can get paid through Medicare." Medicare doesn't pay family caregivers. It only covers short-term skilled home health through certified agencies. Paid family caregiving in Connecticut comes through DSS programs, the VA, or a private contract.

"I can just start getting paid out of Dad's bank account." Not without a written personal services contract. Under Connecticut's 60-month look-back, a transfer for less than fair market value creates a penalty period unless a satisfactory showing is made to the State that the individual intended to dispose of the assets either at fair market value or for other valuable consideration, so undocumented payments risk a penalty period that delays the parent's Medicaid long-term care later.10

Related Terms

• Consumer Directed Services (CDS): The national term for self-directed programs like Connecticut's Community First Choice, where the care recipient directs their own attendant.
• HCBS waiver: The federal authority behind the PCA Waiver; Community First Choice, by contrast, is a state plan benefit, not a waiver.
• Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): The functional basis for authorizing personal care across Connecticut's programs.
• Nursing Facility Level of Care: The clinical threshold CMS lists for the PCA Waiver; CHCPE's own test is being at risk of nursing home placement.

Learn More

Find personalized help getting paid as a family caregiver in Connecticut at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.