Maryland Benefits by Caregiver Type: Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, or Great-Grandparent

Whether you're a grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, a great-grandparent, or an adult sibling, the financial benefits available in Maryland are largely the same — but the documentation path and a few specific rules vary by your exact relationship to the child.

What Every Relative Caregiver Can Access

Regardless of your specific relationship, all relatives within the fifth degree of consanguinity qualify for:

• Child-only TCA: Up to $339/month per child (2025 rates), with your income completely excluded
• SNAP: Household food benefits with standard deductions for shelter, medical (if you're 60+), and dependent care
• MCHP/Medicaid: Full health coverage for the child, with your income excluded if you don't claim the child as a tax dependent
• WIC: For children under 5, no custody order required
• Child Care Scholarship: With kinship priority during enrollment freezes

The child-only TCA exemption under COMAR 07.03.03.07-1.D(6) applies to a non-parent relative acting as a non-needy caretaker. The caretaker is exempt from work requirements, and child-only months do not count against the adult's 60-month time limit. The grant may continue until the child turns 18, or 19 if enrolled full-time in secondary school. Maryland has no TCA asset limit.

Where Your Relationship Matters

Documentation complexity: The further removed you are from the child, the more birth certificates you need to prove the chain. A grandmother needs the parent's birth certificate (showing her as the mother) plus the child's birth certificate. A great-aunt needs an additional certificate connecting her to the parent's parent. Plan for delays if records come from another state or country.

Statutory affidavits: Both the healthcare consent affidavit (Health-General § 20-105) and the school enrollment affidavit (Education § 7-101) require the caregiver to be related within the fifth degree of consanguinity by blood or marriage. This covers grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces, nephews, first cousins, and great-aunts/uncles. Step-relatives qualify through marriage.

Medicaid MAGI rules: Whether you're a grandmother, aunt, uncle, or adult sibling, the same non-parent MAGI tax household rule applies — if you don't claim the child as a tax dependent, your income is excluded from the child's Medicaid eligibility calculation. The child's income alone determines coverage.

Grandmothers and Grandfathers

The most common kinship caregivers. Additional resources beyond the standard programs:

• National Family Caregiver Support Program (Title III-E): If you're aged 55 or older, you qualify for respite care vouchers, supplemental funds for school supplies, and support groups through the Maryland Department of Aging and local Area Agencies on Aging. Contact Maryland Access Point at 1-844-632-8472.
• Elderly/disabled medical deduction for SNAP: If you're 60 or older or disabled, you can deduct out-of-pocket medical expenses exceeding $35/month — Medicare premiums, prescription copays, dental — from your SNAP income calculation, boosting your food benefit.

Aunts and Uncles

Third-degree relatives. Full access to all programs, including statutory affidavits. The main documentation challenge: you need birth certificates establishing that you and the child's parent are siblings. If the parent is a half-sibling, records showing the shared parent suffice.

Great-Grandparents

Third-degree relatives by consanguinity. Same eligibility as grandparents, including Title III-E caregiver support if 55 or older. Documentation requires one additional generation of birth certificates.

Adult Siblings (Age 18+)

Second-degree relatives. Fully eligible for child-only TCA, all statutory affidavits, and Medicaid income exclusion. The primary hurdle is establishing independent adult head-of-household status — a sibling still living in the parent's home may face questions about whether they constitute a separate household for SNAP purposes.

Fictive Kin: The Exception

Close family friends, godparents, and non-related caregivers fall outside the fifth-degree consanguinity limit. They cannot use the statutory affidavits for healthcare or school enrollment and may need formal legal custody or guardianship to establish that authority. For TCA, fictive kin are subject to standard adult work rules unless the child is in formal foster care.

The Financial Help for Relatives Raising a Child in Maryland guide walks through every program by caregiver type — from grandparents to great-aunts — with document checklists and tracking tools tailored to your specific relationship.

See more Maryland guides →