Families can claim the cost of care for either minor children or a disabled adult member while the household member is working, attending education or training programs, or looking for work¹.

Dependent care includes the cost for supervision of teenage children (under age 18), as well as care of a child or disabled adult not part of your SNAP household (for example, a foster child or non-citizen child).

Dependent care costs include:

• fees or co-payments to private or subsidized childcare agencies
• for the cost of informal care from caregivers who not also part of your SNAP household
• payments for “attendant care,” PCAs and/or co-payments for adult day care provided for elder or disabled adults
• fees for after-school, before-school and vacation care including adult supervised before and after-school activities for teenagers, YMCA and YWCA camps, Boys and Girls Clubs, summer camp fees
• transportation to and from the program sites at the federal mileage rate (67 cents as of January 2024) or the cost of public transportation
• Representative payee administrative fees for SSI/RSDI recipients living in group homes (if the Rep payee is seeing SNAP).

You can self-declare your dependent care costs. See what information you can self-declare.

Dependent care for disabled/elder adults

If you need to pay for care for a disabled adult – such as an elderly parent or disabled adult child – so that you can go to work or training or look for work, you can claim this as a dependent care cost¹.

If a disabled member of your household pays for adult care for his or her own reasons (unrelated to you going to work), DTA will treat these costs as medical expenses of the disabled individual, not dependent care expenses². See medical expenses you can claim if you are elderly or disabled. Either way, adult dependent care of a person with disabilities is a deductible expense.

You do not need to wait until your next Interim Report or Recertification to claim new or increased dependent care expenses. If you incur any dependent care costs you did not previously report to DTA, notify DTA immediately.

DTA Online Guide

See Appendix G for links to the DTA’s BEACON Online Guide for this section.