New Hampshire Kinship Financial Help — Every Benefit Your Grandchild Can Claim

Your Pension Doesn't Disqualify the Child — But Nobody Told You That at the DHHS Office

You called the DHHS Customer Service Center to ask about help for your grandchild. You sat on hold. When someone finally answered, they asked about your income. You mentioned your pension. The conversation shifted, and you hung up assuming there was nothing available.

That one phone call may be costing your family up to $798 every month.

New Hampshire's Family Assistance Program has a specific pathway for non-needy caretaker relatives. Under this pathway, the Bureau of Family Assistance excludes your personal income — your pension, your Social Security retirement, your wages, your savings — entirely. Eligibility is based on the child's own countable income. Most children placed with relatives have effectively zero, which means the child qualifies for the full monthly grant.

The New Hampshire Kinship Benefits Navigator

This guide is a single-source roadmap that puts every payment, every application step, and every agency deadline together — so you stop searching between DHHS manuals, NH EASY screens, and nonprofit directories and start applying.

It covers FANF child-only cash assistance through the Family Assistance Program, Children's Medicaid, SNAP food benefits, WIC, School Meals and Summer EBT, the NH Child Care Scholarship, emergency assistance through municipal welfare and Step Up Parents, and the fair hearing process if any benefit is denied. Each chapter walks through who qualifies, how the income rules work, which forms to file, and what documents to bring — in plain language, not policy-manual jargon.

What's Inside

• Cash assistance by arrangement type — a reference table mapping your legal situation (informal care, power of attorney, court-appointed guardianship under RSA 463, DCYF placement) against the exact programs you qualify for, the monthly grant amounts per child, and the income rules that apply to each
• BFA Form 800 walkthrough — step-by-step instructions for the combined Application for Assistance: how to establish a protected application date immediately, which sections to complete as a non-needy caretaker relative, when to attach the Medical Assistance Insert (Form 800MA), and how to file through NH EASY, by mail, by phone, or in person
• The SSI household rule that changes everything — adult SSI counts as unearned income for FANF, while child SSI is excluded, and the difference can shift your total benefit by hundreds of dollars. Two worked examples show exactly how the math works so there are no surprises when the caseworker runs the calculation
• Health, food and childcare benefits — how Children's Medicaid works for kinship households, how SNAP counts household income differently from FANF, what WIC and Summer EBT cover, and how to apply for the NH Child Care Scholarship through NH Connections when the child needs licensed care
• Emergency assistance and community grants — municipal welfare, the Emergency Assistance program, Step Up Parents grants for families affected by substance use, ServiceLink respite for caregivers aged 55 and older, and the Kinship Navigator Program through Waypoint NH and regional Family Resource Centers
• Fair hearing guide — what to do when a benefit is denied or reduced: the filing deadline, Aid Paid Pending rules for keeping existing benefits running during appeal, and how to prepare for the administrative hearing
• Document Verification Checklist — a separate printable PDF listing every record you need across all applications (birth certificate, Social Security card, proof of relationship, residency verification) so you gather everything once
• 6 printable worksheets — Application Tracking Log, Renewal Deadline Tracker, Notice Tracking Log, Agency Communication Log, Benefits-by-Arrangement Quick Reference, and Document Verification Checklist as separate PDFs you can print and write on at the kitchen table or bring to the District Office

Who This Guide Is For

• Grandparents raising a grandchild on a fixed income who assumed their pension or retirement disqualified the child from state cash help
• Aunts, uncles, and older siblings who took in a child suddenly and need to know which agency to contact first and which form to file
• Relatives caring for a child informally who want to understand what benefits are available without going through court
• Kinship caregivers with a guardianship order under RSA 463 who were told they qualify for foster-care subsidies — and don't, unless the child was in DCYF custody first
• Family members helping from a distance who want to ship a grandparent an organised, printable reference instead of forwarding scattered web links

Why Not Just Use Free Resources?

Free resources are genuinely helpful — and the guide links to the best of them. The Kinship Navigator Program at Waypoint NH offers free support and referrals. 603 Legal Aid provides legal help for income-eligible families. DHHS publishes BFA Form 800 and its policy manuals online.

The problem isn't that the information doesn't exist. It's that each source covers one program — one agency, one benefit, one set of rules — and the material is written for caseworkers processing applications, not for a grandparent who just had a child arrive on a Thursday afternoon with a backpack and no health insurance card.

This guide organises all of it: FANF child-only rules, the SSI versus Social Security retirement distinction, Children's Medicaid, SNAP household rules, the Child Care Scholarship, emergency grants, and the fair hearing process — in the order you actually need it, with the exact forms, portals, and phone numbers for each step.

What This Guide Does Not Do

It does not offer legal advice, court strategy, or custody recommendations. It does not tell you whether to file for guardianship or represent yourself in a hearing. It does not guarantee eligibility for any program — every case depends on individual circumstances. What it does is explain what each program offers, who qualifies, and how to apply, so you walk into every agency appointment prepared.

Satisfaction Guarantee

If the guide doesn't help your family, email [email protected] for a full refund, no time limit. No forms, no explanation needed.

Get Started Now

Download the free checklist to see what benefits to check and what documents to gather. When you're ready for the full walkthrough — every program, every application step, every deadline — get the complete guide for .