Tennessee Families First Income Limits for Relative Caregivers

The Income Rule That Changes Everything

Tennessee Families First has strict income limits — for regular cases. For a child-only assistance unit with three children, the Gross Income Standard is $2,866/month. That figure is not a limit for an adult-inclusive family of three. Adult-inclusive cases also have a 30-hour weekly work requirement and a 60-month lifetime cap. If those rules applied to every applicant, most grandparents on retirement income would either barely qualify or not qualify at all.

But child-only cases work completely differently. When a relative caregiver applies for Families First and the biological parents don't live in the household, the caregiver can elect child-only status. The caregiver excludes their own needs from the assistance unit, and TDHS evaluates eligibility based solely on the child's income and resources.

Your Social Security retirement, your SSDI, your pension, your wages, your spouse's earnings — none of it counts.

What Income Does Count

In a child-only case, TDHS looks only at money that belongs to the child:

• Child support paid by biological parents directly to the household
• Social Security survivor benefits issued in the child's name (if a parent is deceased)
• The child's own earnings (rare, but included)

If the child receives SSI, that payment is excluded from the TANF budget — it doesn't count as income for Families First purposes.

The child's countable resources can't exceed $2,000, with up to $4,600 of vehicle equity excluded.

The Math: How the Benefit Is Calculated

TDHS runs a four-step calculation:

1. Gross income test: The child's total gross countable monthly income is compared against the Gross Income Standard (185% of the Consolidated Need Standard) for the assistance unit size. For one child, that ceiling is $1,806/month. If the child's gross income exceeds this, the application is denied.

2. Net income calculation: Allowable disregards are subtracted from the child's gross income.

3. Need comparison: The net income is compared against the Consolidated Need Standard ($976 for one child).

4. Grant calculation: The monthly benefit equals the Differential Grant Payment Amount minus the child's net countable income. The DGPA is $240 for one child, $292 for two children, $332 for three.

In practice, most kinship children have little or no countable income of their own, so the full DGPA is awarded.

No Work Requirement, No Time Limit

Two other rules that apply to regular Families First cases are waived in child-only cases:

Work requirements: Regular Families First adult recipients must complete 30 hours per week of WorkFirst activities. Child-only caregivers are fully exempt. You don't need to work, volunteer, or attend training to maintain the grant.

The 60-month limit: The federal TANF lifetime cap applies only to adult-inclusive cases where the adult receives cash benefits. In a child-only case, the clock doesn't run. The grant can continue until the child turns 18 (or 19 if completing high school) with no time limit.

The Condition You Do Need to Meet

Child-only caregivers must sign a Personal Responsibility Plan (PRP) focused on the child's wellbeing. The requirements are straightforward: school-aged children must maintain satisfactory attendance, and preschool children must receive required immunizations and preventive health checks.

Failure to comply without good cause results in a percentage reduction of the cash grant — not a full termination.

Why This Gets Missed

The ONE DHS portal and county office intake forms don't prominently flag the child-only option. The application form asks about household income, which leads many grandparents to enter their full financial picture and conclude they don't qualify. Ask the TDHS worker to confirm that the case is being evaluated as child-only, which excludes caregiver income.

If your application was denied and you're not sure whether it was processed as child-only, check the denial notice. If it mentions your income, your retirement, or your household earnings, the case may not have been correctly classified. An appeal within 90 calendar days can correct the error.

The Tennessee Kinship Financial Help Guide includes a child-versus-caregiver income separator worksheet to confirm child-only eligibility before you apply, plus step-by-step instructions for navigating the ONE DHS portal to ensure the application is correctly classified.

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