Minnesota MFIP Child-Only Grant: Cash Help That Ignores Your Income

What the MFIP Child-Only Grant Actually Is

If you're a grandparent or relative raising someone else's child in Minnesota, the MFIP child-only grant is probably the single most important benefit you haven't applied for yet. It provides monthly cash and food assistance specifically for the child — and the part that trips people up is that your income doesn't count.

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) has a special track for non-needy caretaker relatives. When you apply for child-only assistance, the county looks only at the child's income (Social Security survivor benefits, child support, trust payments). Your pension, your wages, your savings — none of it enters the calculation. A grandmother earning $60,000 a year and a grandmother on a $900 Social Security check have exactly the same eligibility for this grant.

This isn't welfare for you. It's a cash benefit for the child you're raising.

Who Qualifies as a Non-Needy Caretaker Relative

You must be related to the child by blood, marriage, or adoption. Eligible relatives include grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces, nephews, and first cousins. Step-relatives also qualify.

The child must live with you in Minnesota and the child's parents cannot live in the same household. If a biological parent moves back in, the child-only track closes and the entire household's income gets counted under standard MFIP rules.

The exceptions are when the parent is disabled and receives SSI, or when parental rights have been terminated and the parent is deemed a boarder under MFIP rules.

How Much the Grant Pays

MFIP child-only grants combine a cash portion (deposited to your account or EBT card) and a food portion (loaded onto a Minnesota EBT card). As of October 2026:

• 1 child: $697/month ($443 cash + $254 food)
• 2 children: $1,145/month ($679 cash + $466 food)
• 3 children: $1,470/month ($799 cash + $671 food)

These amounts assume the child has zero countable income. If the child receives Social Security survivor benefits, those reduce the grant — but Minnesota disregards the first $994/month of RSDI per recipient in 2026, so a child getting $300 in survivor benefits still receives the full grant amount.

Child support has its own disregard: the first $100/month for one child ($200 for two or more) is excluded before any reduction.

No Time Limits, No Work Rules

Standard MFIP recipients face a 60-month lifetime limit and mandatory employment services. Child-only cases are exempt from both. You won't be assigned to job search activities, employment plans, or work requirements. The grant continues as long as the child lives with you and remains eligible — there is no clock running.

You do need to cooperate with child support enforcement by identifying the child's non-custodial parents (Form DHS-2338). If pursuing child support would put you or the child at risk — because the reasons behind kinship placements are sometimes exactly that dangerous — you can file a Good Cause Exception on the same form.

How to Apply

Submit an application through MNbenefits (mnbenefits.mn.gov) or file a paper Combined Application Form (DHS-5223) at your county human services office. Check the box for cash assistance and specify child-only.

File immediately, even if you don't have every document gathered. Your application date is your protective filing date — benefits are calculated from that date forward, not from the date you complete your paperwork.

The county must process your application within 30 days.

What You'll Need to Bring

The basics: the child's birth certificate, the child's Social Security number, your ID, proof of Minnesota residency, and a statement confirming the child's parents don't live with you. If birth certificates are missing, the county can run electronic matches through Minnesota Vital Statistics — don't let missing paperwork stop you from filing.

Our Minnesota Kinship Financial Help Guide walks through every document, every form number, and every deadline — including the income disregard rules that county workers sometimes get wrong. It also includes a document preparation checklist and worked examples showing exactly how benefits are calculated for different family situations.

See more Minnesota guides →