Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Help, Benefits, Where to Start

Grandparents raising grandchildren can get federal help, starting with National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) services from age 55 and kinship navigator programs. A grandchild in a grandparent's care may also qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Security, and Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).1,2,3,4,5

Maybe it happened over one phone call. Your daughter couldn't care for her kids anymore, or your son died, and now there's a seven-year-old at your kitchen table who needs a school, a doctor, shoes and a bedtime. You didn't plan for this at 62, and you're probably running on love and very little sleep. The good news is that several federal programs were written with you in mind, and this guide walks through each one and who to call first.1

In This Guide

• Where Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Should Start
• Caregiver Help for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Age 55 and Older
• What a Kinship Navigator Can Do for You
• Cash Help for the Child: TANF Child-Only Grants
• Can Your Grandchild Get Social Security on Your Record?
• Health Coverage for Your Grandchild: Medicaid and CHIP
• Custody, Guardianship and the Paperwork Question
• Looking After Yourself, Too
• Frequently Asked Questions

Where Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Should Start

When everything lands at once, it helps to know that you don't have to find every program yourself. Two kinds of offices exist to sort it out with you.

The first is your local Area Agency on Aging. Under Title III-E of the federal Older Americans Act, area agencies on aging (or organizations they contract with) deliver caregiver support services to "older relative caregivers," a group that includes grandparents 55 and older raising a grandchild.1

The second is a kinship navigator program, if your state runs one. Under section 427 of the federal Social Security Act, a kinship navigator program helps kinship caregivers learn about, find and use programs and services for the children they're raising and for themselves.2

Call both if you can. The area agency on aging delivers NFCSP caregiver support to you, and a kinship navigator program links your family to benefits information, training and legal help.

Caregiver Help for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Age 55 and Older

You may know the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) as help for someone caring for an aging parent. It's also written for you. NFCSP funds support services for two groups: family caregivers of older adults, and "older relative caregivers."1

Do you count as an older relative caregiver?

Under the federal definition in 42 U.S.C. 3030s, a grandparent counts as an older relative caregiver for NFCSP when all of these are true:1

• You're age 55 or older.
• You're the grandparent, stepgrandparent or another relative of the child by blood, marriage or adoption, but not the child's parent.
• You live with the child and are the child's primary caregiver.
• You're the primary caregiver because the child's parents are unable or unwilling to be.
• You have a legal relationship with the child, such as legal custody, adoption or guardianship, or you're raising the child informally.

That last line matters more than it looks. Under the Older Americans Act definition, a grandparent raising a grandchild informally, with no court papers at all, still counts as an older relative caregiver.1

The Older Americans Act defines a "child" for NFCSP as someone not more than 18 years of age, while the Administration for Community Living (ACL), which runs the program, describes the group as older relatives caring for children under 18.1 If your grandchild is 18, ask your area agency on aging how it applies the NFCSP age rule.

What NFCSP can pay for

Under the Older Americans Act, every state's NFCSP program must include five kinds of caregiver services, delivered through area agencies on aging:1

• Information about services that are available
• Help getting access to those services
• Individual counseling, support groups and caregiver training
• Respite care, so you get a temporary break
• Supplemental services, on a limited basis

One detail helps grandparents. The Older Americans Act's rule limiting NFCSP respite care and supplemental services to caregivers of a frail older adult is written for family caregivers of older adults, not for older relative caregivers raising children.1 The Older Americans Act also tells each state's NFCSP program to give priority to, among others, older relative caregivers of children with severe disabilities.1

Ask your area agency on aging which of these it offers grandparents right now, and whether there's a wait. For a deeper look at the program, see our guide to the National Family Caregiver Support Program.

What a Kinship Navigator Can Do for You

A kinship navigator program exists to know the systems you're suddenly dealing with. Under section 427(a)(1) of the Social Security Act, a kinship navigator program must set up information and referral systems, reachable toll-free, that connect kinship caregivers to each other, to eligibility and enrollment information for federal, state and local benefits, to training, and to legal assistance.2 Section 427(a)(1) of the Social Security Act also has kinship navigator programs provide outreach to kinship care families, including a kinship care website or other guides.2

The federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) says the Family First Prevention Services Act gave title IV-E agencies the option to receive funding for evidence-based kinship navigator programs, and that approved agencies may claim 50 percent federal financial participation for allowable kinship navigator programs.2

As of January 2026, ACF lists 11 states and one territory as approved to run an evidence-based Title IV-E kinship navigator program: Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and Washington.2

Don't read that list as the only states with help. The ACF list covers only the Title IV-E evidence-based kinship navigator programs, and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Advisory Council, in a 2025 tip sheet published by ACL, says many states have a kinship navigator program.2 Ask your area agency on aging or your state's child welfare agency for the one that serves you.

Cash Help for the Child: TANF Child-Only Grants

Money is usually the first worry, and it's a fair one. You may be feeding and clothing a child on a retirement income that was sized for one or two adults.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) can provide what's called "child-only" assistance. The federal Administration for Children and Families' research office describes a TANF child-only case as one in which no adult is included in the benefit calculation, which can happen when children live with relatives instead of with their parents.3

According to the ACL-published 2025 tip sheet from the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Advisory Council, a grandchild may qualify for TANF child-only assistance, and a grandparent can apply for TANF on the child's behalf.3

The same tip sheet notes that TANF child-only assistance is typically less than foster care payments.3 If a child welfare agency was involved in your grandchild coming to live with you, ask the caseworker which payment options fit your family before you settle on TANF alone.

Ask your state's TANF or human services office what child-only assistance pays where you live and how to apply. A kinship navigator can help you with the application.

Can Your Grandchild Get Social Security on Your Record?

This one is easy to miss. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), when a grandparent retires, becomes disabled or dies, the grandchild may qualify for benefits on that grandparent's record if certain conditions are met.4

SSA's conditions for a grandchild to receive benefits on a grandparent's Social Security record are:4

1. The parents. Generally, the child's natural or adoptive parents must be deceased or disabled, or the grandparent must have legally adopted the grandchild. A step-grandchild may also qualify.
2. Living together. The grandchild must have begun living with the grandparent before age 18.
3. Support. The grandchild must have received at least one half of his or her support from the grandparent for the year before the month the grandparent became entitled to retirement or disability benefits, or died.

A grandchild born during the one year before the grandparent became entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefits, or died, can still qualify under SSA's rules if the grandparent lived with the baby and provided at least half of the child's support for substantially all of the time from birth to the month the grandparent became entitled to benefits or died.4

The timing is the part that catches families. Under the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 416(e) and 402(d)(9)), for a grandchild who qualifies through the parents rather than through adoption, the parents must have been deceased or disabled, and the living-together and support tests must be met, as of the time the grandparent became entitled to benefits or died.4 If your grandchild moved in after you'd already started collecting retirement, bring that timeline to SSA and ask directly rather than assuming the answer.

Our guide to Social Security survivor benefits explains how benefits paid on a deceased worker's record work.

Health Coverage for Your Grandchild: Medicaid and CHIP

Getting the child insured can feel like the most urgent thing on the list, especially if your employer plan won't add a grandchild. The two programs to know are Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). According to the ACL-published tip sheet, CHIP provides low-cost health insurance to children in families that don't qualify for Medicaid.5

Your income isn't the grandchild's income

This part may come as a relief. Under federal Medicaid rules at 42 CFR 435.603, if you expect to claim your grandchild as a tax dependent, your grandchild's Medicaid household is not your household, because the grandparent-claims-grandchild case is one the rule sends to the separate "non-filer" household test.5 Under the federal Medicaid and CHIP non-filer household rule (42 CFR 435.603), the household of a child under 19 (or under 21 for a full-time student, in states that choose that option) is the child plus any spouse, children, parents and siblings under that age who live with the child.5

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses this exact case in its MAGI training (last updated December 11, 2020): a grandfather who claims his 15-year-old grandson as a tax dependent has a household of himself and the grandson, but the grandson's Medicaid household includes only the grandson.5

The flip side: when a child isn't living with a parent, for example a child living with a grandparent, CMS says the child's own income is always counted in the child's Medicaid eligibility, even if it's below the tax filing threshold.5 List any income the child receives on the application.

Coverage that stays put

Once a child under 19 is found eligible, federal law since January 1, 2024 requires every state to provide 12 months of continuous eligibility in both Medicaid and CHIP, so a rise in family income during those 12 months generally doesn't end the child's coverage.6 Our guide to children's 12-month continuous eligibility covers the exceptions.

If a child welfare agency placed your grandchild with you, the ACL-published tip sheet says the agency should automatically enroll the child in Medicaid.5 Ask your caseworker to confirm it happened.

Custody, Guardianship and the Paperwork Question

NFCSP doesn't require a court order (see the eligibility list above), but paperwork still matters day to day.1 The Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Advisory Council's ACL-published 2025 tip sheet says schools will often ask for documentation of a child's legal residence and custody arrangement before enrollment, and some health care providers may require documentation of your legal relationship before you can consent to the child's care.1 The same tip sheet says many schools and health care providers may know of a simple affidavit or other documents you can use to show you're raising the child.1 Start there before you pay for anything.

The main arrangements, in plain terms

For Title IV-E child welfare purposes, section 475(7) of the federal Social Security Act defines legal guardianship as a judicially created relationship between a child and caretaker, intended to be permanent and self-sustaining, that transfers to the caretaker the parental rights of protection, education, care and control, custody, and decision-making.1

Which arrangement fits is a question for a family-law attorney or legal aid office where you live, and the choice can touch the Social Security grandchild benefits above.4 The ACL-published tip sheets say a lawyer or legal expert can help set up a custody agreement or arrange adoption, and that grandparents and kin caregivers may qualify for free legal aid based on income.1 Our guide to free legal help for seniors explains how to find legal assistance through the aging network.

Looking After Yourself, Too

It's easy to put yourself last right now. But the child in your house needs you healthy for a long time, and you're allowed to need help. The NFCSP counseling, support group and respite services described above exist for exactly this.1

A few places to start: our guides to caregiver support groups, respite care and caregiver self-care. If you live in New York, our New York kinship caregiver guide shows the state-level detail your own state's programs may have.

Learn More

Find personalized help sorting out which benefits and support fit your family as a grandparent raising a grandchild 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.