Making Ends Meet: Financial Help

In New Hampshire children raised by kinship caregivers may be eligible for a variety of state and federal financial assistance programs. In most cases, kinship caregivers may apply for these programs on a child’s behalf even though they are not the child’s parents or legal guardians. Some examples of these programs include:

Cash and other forms of financial assistance Children and their kinship caregivers may quality for direct cash benefits through New Hampshire’s Family Assistance Program (FAP). Kinship care families may also be eligible for food stamps to help meet their children’s food and nutrition needs. For more information about these programs, call 1-800-852-3345 x 4580 or log on to NH DHHS Division of Family Assistance

Free help filing your tax forms These local offices throughout New Hampshire offer free help preparing your federal income tax forms. You can also call the New Hampshire Help Line at 1-800-852-3388 for a referral to a free tax preparation site nearest you.

You can also call Internal Revenue Service the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 for further information and help preparing forms. You may qualify for one of these special tax credits:

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Learn more about this special tax benefit for working people who earn low or moderate incomes. People who qualify for the EITC and file a federal tax return can get back some or all of the federal income tax that was taken out of their pay during the year.

Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit If you paid someone to care for a qualifying child so could work or look for work, you may be able to claim the credit for child and dependent care expenses.

Health insurance: New Hampshire Healthy Kids Grandparents and other relative caregivers may apply for free or low-cost health insurance for the children they are raising through New Hampshire’s Healthy Kids Gold and Healthy Kids Silver programs. In some cases, caregivers themselves may also be eligible for free coverage under Medicaid. For more information about how to apply for these programs, call 1-877-464-2447.

Licensing for Kinship Foster Parents Kin do not have to be licensed in New Hampshire to care for children, but they must be approved by the N.H. Division of Children, Youth and Families. To be approved, kin must fill out the Kinship Interim Care (KIC) Checklist (also called a “Form 2273”) and participate, cooperate, and meet the requirements of the kinship care approval process.

If kin wish to qualify as a fully-licensed foster family, they must meet the same requirements as non-kin. However, the agency may waive certain licensing requirements that are not related to the health and safety of the child. Contact Gail DeGoosh, Foster Care Specialist, N.H  Division for Children, Youth and Families at 603-271-4711 or email.

Respite Grants Grandparents and other kinship caregivers 55 or older are eligible to apply for a grant for temporary, occasional or planned respite. The respite can be in the form of child care, after-school programs, or day and overnight camp to give grandparents or relative caregivers an occasional break. Contact Cathy Creapaux at the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services at (603) 271-5554 or email.

 

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