Utah Specified Relative Grant — Cash Help for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

What the Specified Relative Grant Actually Is

When a grandparent or other relative takes in a child because the parents are absent — addiction, incarceration, hospitalization, or simply gone — Utah's Department of Workforce Services (DWS) offers a monthly cash payment called the Specified Relative Grant. It falls under the Family Employment Program (FEP), Utah's version of federal TANF, but it operates differently from a standard welfare case.

The grant pays cash directly to the caregiver on behalf of the child. It covers one child at $383 per month, two children at $531, and scales up from there. The money loads onto a Horizon card and can go toward food, clothing, school costs, or anything the child needs.

Qualifying relatives include grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, nieces, nephews, and first cousins. Family friends and non-relatives cannot access this grant through DWS — they need to pursue legal guardianship and look at other pathways.

Why Your Income Doesn't Count

This is the detail that trips up almost every grandparent who walks into a DWS office. When you apply for the Specified Relative Grant, DWS evaluates the child's income and assets only. Your Social Security check, your pension, your savings, your house — none of it matters for this particular program.

DWS calls this "non-needy caretaker relative" status. You are not applying for cash benefits for yourself. You are applying strictly on the child's behalf. Because most children have little to no income of their own, the vast majority of kids placed with relatives qualify.

The exception: if the child receives Social Security Survivor benefits, child support payments, or any other income in their own name, those amounts count against the grant and reduce it dollar for dollar. And if the child already receives SSI, they cannot be in the FEP assistance unit at all — SSI and TANF cash cannot overlap.

No Work Requirements, No Time Limit

Standard FEP cases in Utah come with a 36-month lifetime cap and mandatory work participation. None of that applies to child-only cases. Because you are not receiving cash for yourself, DWS cannot require you to job search, attend employment training, or meet any work hours.

The 36-month Utah time limit and the federal 60-month TANF limit both exempt child-only cases. The grant continues for as long as the child is eligible, lives with you, and remains under 18 — or under 19 if still enrolled full-time in secondary school.

You also cannot be sanctioned for being retired, working part-time, or choosing not to participate in workforce services. The grant belongs to the child, and your employment status is irrelevant to it.

The Child Support Cooperation Requirement

There is one significant string attached. Accepting the Specified Relative Grant means you must cooperate with Utah's Office of Recovery Services (ORS) to establish paternity and pursue child support from the absent parents. ORS collects the support to reimburse the state for the cash grant.

Many grandparents fear this step — especially when the absent parent is their own son or daughter dealing with addiction or incarceration. Utah does allow a "Good Cause" exemption. If pursuing the parent would endanger the child or the caregiver, you can file for Good Cause with documentation (protective orders, police reports, medical records). DWS suspends all collection efforts while keeping the child's cash grant intact.

What Comes Next

The Specified Relative Grant is usually the first benefit a kinship caregiver applies for, but it is not the only one. The child likely qualifies for Medicaid without counting your income, and FEP cash can directly certify the child for free school meals. FEP also makes the child adjunctively eligible for WIC, but WIC requires intake through a local county health department clinic.

SNAP works differently — your household income counts for food stamps even though it does not count for the cash grant. That distinction catches many families off guard.

For a full breakdown of every Utah benefit available to kinship caregivers, including the application documents you need and how each program interacts with the others, see the Utah Kinship Financial Help guide.

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