Is live-in IHSS income counted for CalFresh?

No. When the IHSS provider lives in the same home as the IHSS recipient and has filed Form SOC 2298, the wages are excluded from both gross-income and net-income calculations for CalFresh. This is set out in ACL 16-89 and follows IRS Notice 2014-7. If the provider does not live in the same home, the wages are counted as earned income.

Is live-in IHSS income counted for CalWORKs?

No. ACL 19-94 directs counties to exclude wages paid to a live-in IHSS provider from CalWORKs eligibility and grant determination. The same SOC 2298 self-certification controls whether a wage is treated as live-in. Non-live-in IHSS wages are counted as earned income for CalWORKs.

What is Form SOC 2298 and who files it?

SOC 2298 is the Live-In Self-Certification Form. The IHSS provider files it with the California Department of Social Services to declare that they live in the same home as the IHSS recipient. Once on file, the provider's IHSS wages are excluded from federal and state income tax and treated as excluded income for CalFresh and CalWORKs. Form SOC 2299 is filed when the provider stops living with the recipient.

Does the provider have to be a family member for the exclusion to apply?

No. The exclusion turns on the living arrangement, not the family relationship. A spouse-provider, an adult-child provider, a parent-provider for a minor child, or an unrelated live-in provider all qualify for the same exclusion as long as the provider and recipient share the same home and SOC 2298 is on file.

Can the family apply for both CalFresh and IHSS at the same time?

Yes, and the household frequently qualifies for both. The CalFresh worker should not deny eligibility on the basis of IHSS wages when the provider is live-in and SOC 2298 has been filed. If the application is denied because IHSS wages were counted, the denial can be appealed and corrected, often retroactively.

What if the county already counted live-in IHSS wages and denied or reduced benefits?

Request a Notice of Action in writing showing the income calculation. File a Request for State Hearing within 90 days of the Notice. Bring SOC 2298 (or file it now and submit a copy), the IHSS payroll printout, and a written statement that the provider and recipient share the same home. Counties routinely correct these calculations once the live-in status is documented. Retroactive benefits may be paid back to the original application month.

Does the live-in IHSS exclusion apply to other programs too?

Yes for several. The same federal Notice 2014-7 wage exclusion applies to federal income tax and, when reported correctly, to Medi-Cal MAGI eligibility for the provider. It does not change the IHSS recipient's own Medi-Cal eligibility, which is based on the recipient's own income. It does not exclude non-IHSS wages a live-in provider earns from a separate job. SSI rules treat live-in IHSS wages differently and require their own analysis.

What is the most common mistake families and county workers make?

Filing SOC 2298 with the IHSS payroll system but not telling the CalFresh or CalWORKs worker. The IHSS payroll system stops withholding tax, but the CalFresh or CalWORKs case file may still show the wages as countable income because the eligibility worker is looking at a different data feed. The fix is to give the eligibility worker a copy of SOC 2298 and a one-line written statement that the provider lives in the home, then ask for the income calculation to be redone.

Does live-in IHSS income count for CalFresh, CalWORKs?

Does live-in IHSS income count for CalFresh or CalWORKs?

If the IHSS provider lives in the same home as the recipient and files SOC 2298, the wages are excluded from both CalFresh and CalWORKs income. If they do not live together, the wages are counted as earned income for both programs. The rule trips up county eligibility workers as often as it trips up families.

Written by Editorial team, California Care Compass

Reviewed by California Care Compass Editorial Team, California Care Compass

2026 · California Care Compass

The short answer.

California excludes wages paid to a live-in IHSS provider from both CalFresh and CalWORKs income. The exclusion applies when the provider and the IHSS recipient share the same home and the provider has filed Form SOC 2298 with the state. When the provider does not live in the home, the same wages are counted as earned income for both programs.

The rule comes from a 2014 federal IRS notice on Medicaid waiver payments and was adopted into California public-benefits practice through three All-County Letters: ACL 16-01 set the framework, ACL 16-89 implemented it for CalFresh, and ACL 19-94 implemented it for CalWORKs.

Why the rule exists.

Before 2014, IHSS wages paid to a family member providing care in the family home were treated like any other earned income. A daughter caring for her father, paid by IHSS, would see those wages counted against the household’s CalFresh and CalWORKs eligibility. Families were effectively penalized for keeping a parent at home instead of placing them in a facility, even though keeping the parent at home was the cheaper public outcome.

IRS Notice 2014-7 treated certain Medicaid waiver payments to a live-in care provider as “difficulty of care” payments excluded from federal gross income. California adopted the same treatment for state income tax and then, through CDSS, extended the exclusion into the means-tested benefit programs the same household was likely to be enrolled in.

What “live-in” actually means.

Live-in is a status the provider self-certifies. The legal definition is that the provider and the recipient share the same home as their principal place of residence. The provider sleeps in the home, gets mail there, and uses it as their primary address. Short trips away from the home do not break live-in status. A separate legal address kept for other reasons does break it.

The status is declared on Form SOC 2298, the Live-In Self-Certification Form. The provider signs the form and submits it to CDSS. From that point on, IHSS payroll treats the wages as excluded from federal and state income tax. When the provider stops living with the recipient, Form SOC 2299 is filed and the exclusion ends.

How CalFresh applies the rule.

ACL 16-89 directs county CalFresh workers to exclude IHSS wages paid to a live-in provider from both the gross-income test (130 percent of the federal poverty level for most households) and the net-income test (100 percent of the federal poverty level). The wage does not appear anywhere in the eligibility calculation when SOC 2298 is on file.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a live-in family provider who would otherwise be over the income limit because of IHSS wages can still qualify for CalFresh. Second, the IHSS recipient’s household composition matters. If the recipient and the provider live together as one household for purchasing and preparing food, they apply for CalFresh as one household. If the recipient buys and prepares food separately even though they share a residence, they may apply as a separate elderly or disabled household, which has a different (and often more favorable) income test.

How CalWORKs applies the rule.

ACL 19-94 extended the same exclusion to CalWORKs. Wages paid to a live-in IHSS provider are not counted in determining CalWORKs eligibility or the Maximum Aid Payment (MAP) grant amount. The exclusion applies regardless of whether the provider is the head of the assistance unit, a parent, or a stepparent.

CalWORKs is more often relevant when the IHSS recipient is a minor child with a disability and a parent is the paid live-in provider. Without the exclusion, the parent’s IHSS wages would routinely push the family over the CalWORKs income limit. With the exclusion, the family can keep CalWORKs and have a paid caregiver in the home at the same time.

Common ways the rule gets misapplied.

The provider filed SOC 2298 with the IHSS payroll system but never gave a copy to the CalFresh or CalWORKs eligibility worker. The eligibility system shows the wages as countable income because the county is reading a different report. The fix is a one-page memo to the worker with SOC 2298 attached.
The county counts IHSS wages because the case file lists the provider and recipient at different mailing addresses. A common reason is a P.O. box used for mail. The fix is a written declaration that the residential address is shared.
The provider is a parent of a minor IHSS recipient and the county treats the wages as parental earned income. ACL 19-94 directly addresses this case. The wages are excluded.
The provider has both IHSS live-in wages and a separate non-IHSS job. Only the live-in IHSS wages are excluded. The other job’s wages are counted as earned income normally.
The provider moved out partway through the year. SOC 2299 should have been filed at that point. For the months the provider lived in the home, the exclusion applies. For the months after, it does not.

Fixing a denial that ignored the exclusion.

Request the Notice of Action in writing. It will show the income numbers the county used. Confirm whether IHSS wages were counted.
File a Request for State Hearing within 90 days of the Notice. The form is on the CDSS website and can be mailed, faxed, or filed online.
Gather three documents for the hearing: a copy of SOC 2298, an IHSS payroll printout showing the wages, and a written statement that the provider and the recipient share the same home as their principal residence.
Counties frequently resolve these cases before the hearing date, once the eligibility worker reviews the file with SOC 2298 in hand. Benefits may be paid retroactively to the original application month.

What this article does not cover.

SSI treats live-in IHSS wages under a different set of rules and is not covered here. Medi-Cal eligibility for the IHSS recipient depends on the recipient’s own income, not the provider’s, so the live-in exclusion does not change it. Federal and state income-tax treatment of live-in IHSS wages is related but is a separate analysis from the CalFresh and CalWORKs treatment described above.