Kinship Care Ontario: Financial Help, Legal Options and Where to Start

You agreed to take a child because somebody had to, and now you are trying to figure out how Ontario's financial system works for a relative who is not the parent. The good news: Ontario has real money set aside for this exact situation, and most of it is based on the child's need, not yours.

What Kinship Care Means in Ontario

Ontario uses "kinship care" as an umbrella term for any arrangement where a grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, or family friend raises a child instead of the biological parents. But the label matters less than the legal category your arrangement falls into, because the category determines which money you can access.

There are three broad paths:

• Informal kinship care — you took the child in through a private family agreement, with no court order and no Children's Aid Society involvement. This is the most common starting point.
• Kinship service — a CAS has assessed your home and placed a child with you, but you are not a licensed foster parent. The child's legal custody may still sit with the parent or the CAS.
• Kinship care (formal foster) — you have been fully approved and licensed as a foster parent through a CAS. You receive foster per diem payments but lose eligibility for Temporary Care Assistance.

Most relatives start with informal care. That is perfectly fine. You do not need a court order, a CAS file, or legal custody to access the two biggest sources of financial support.

The Two Core Funding Streams

Temporary Care Assistance (TCA)

TCA is a child-only benefit under Ontario Works, governed by Directive 3.10. The critical feature: your income, pension, savings, and assets are completely ignored. Eligibility depends on the child's non-exempt income and assets, and the child's non-exempt asset limit is $500.

Monthly rates for the first child: $274 south of the 50th parallel, $440 north of the 50th parallel in communities without year-round road access. Each additional child adds $224 (or $326 in those northern communities). The child also receives automatic health coverage — prescription drugs through the Ontario Drug Benefit, dental care, and vision care.

No court order is required. You apply at your local municipal Ontario Works office or District Social Services Administration Board.

Canada Child Benefit and Ontario Child Benefit

The CCB delivers up to $679.75 per month for a child under six and $573.58 for a child aged six to seventeen (2026–2027 benefit year), based on the caregiver's adjusted family net income. The Ontario Child Benefit adds up to $146.66 per month per child.

You claim both by submitting CRA Form RC66. You do not need the biological parent's permission or tax return. Third-party proof that you provide the child's primary care — a school enrolment letter, a doctor's note, or a CAS confirmation letter — is enough.

Where CAS Kinship Service Fits

If a Children's Aid Society is involved and places a child with you under kinship service, you remain eligible for TCA and can also access CAS discretionary funds — one-time start-up money for beds, car seats, or safety equipment. These CAS payments are explicitly exempt as income under Ontario Works rules, so they do not reduce your TCA.

The key distinction: kinship service caregivers are not foster parents and do not receive foster per diem payments. If you later become a licensed foster parent through the CAS, the per diem replaces TCA — you cannot receive both.

Getting Started

The practical first steps for most relative caregivers in Ontario:

1. Contact your local Ontario Works office and ask specifically for a Temporary Care Assistance application under Section 10 of the Ontario Works Act, 1997. Bring the child's birth certificate and a school enrolment letter naming you as the primary contact.
2. Submit CRA Form RC66 to transfer the Canada Child Benefit to you. Attach the same proof-of-care documents.
3. If a CAS is involved, ask your kinship worker about start-up and episodic funding.

A grandmother on OAS and GIS who takes in one grandchild with no other child income would receive roughly $994 per month — $274 TCA plus the maximum CCB and OCB — without any reduction to her personal pension.

Common Concerns

Relatives often worry that applying for social assistance will trigger a CAS investigation or reduce their pension. TCA is a child-only benefit administered by Ontario Works, separate from CAS child-protection processes. Your OAS, GIS, CPP, or private pension income is completely excluded from the TCA eligibility test.

Another persistent myth: that TCA lasts only one year. There is no 12-month limit. TCA continues as long as the child is in financial need and the temporary care arrangement persists, with a mandatory eligibility review at least every 24 months.

Our Ontario Kinship Financial Help guide walks through every payment, every form, and every proof document in a single printable resource — from the TCA application to the CCB transfer, CAS kinship service supports, and the ACSD disability benefit. It includes tracking logs and worked scenarios for common situations like a grandparent on a pension, a working aunt, or a child with a disability.

If you have been cobbling together information from government websites and Facebook groups, the guide puts it in one place so you can stop searching and start applying.

See more Ontario guides →