To qualify for California’s In-Home Supportive Services program, you must live in California in your own home, be 65 or older, legally blind, or disabled, have Medi-Cal, and be at risk of placement in a nursing facility or other out-of-home care without help. All of these California IHSS eligibility requirements must be met at the same time. If you qualify, a county social worker authorizes a set number of monthly hours for a caregiver of your choosing to help with tasks ranging from housework to wound care.
The Three Core Eligibility Tests
Every applicant has to clear three separate tests.
The first is residency and living situation. You must be a California resident living in your own home or a place of your choosing. Hospitals, nursing facilities, and licensed community care facilities do not count as your own home for IHSS purposes.1California Department of Social Services. In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Program
The second is category. You must fall into at least one of three groups: age 65 or older, legally blind, or disabled.2California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 12300
The third is risk of out-of-home placement. You have to show that without a caregiver’s help you would be at risk of being placed in a nursing facility or similar setting. This is the test that the Health Care Certification form (SOC 873) is designed to document.
Medi-Cal Is Required
You cannot receive IHSS without an active Medi-Cal determination.1California Department of Social Services. In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Program For applicants who are 65 or older, blind, or disabled, Medi-Cal eligibility runs through both an income test and an asset test.
Income Limits
The monthly income limit for a single person in 2026 is $1,836, based on 138% of the federal poverty level.3Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. Aged, Blind and Disabled Federal Poverty Level (FPL) Program Income above that line does not automatically disqualify you. You may still qualify through Share of Cost, where you pay a set monthly amount toward your medical and care expenses before Medi-Cal kicks in. The county calculates that amount by subtracting a maintenance need allowance ($600 per month for a single person in 2026) from your countable income. Once your out-of-pocket medical spending hits your Share of Cost in a given month, Medi-Cal covers the rest, including IHSS.
Asset Limits
California applies an asset test to people who are 65 or older, have a disability, or live in a nursing home. The limit is $130,000 for one person, with an additional $65,000 for each additional household member up to ten people.4Department of Health Care Services. Asset Limit Frequently Asked Questions For applicants entering a nursing home, a 30-month look-back applies to asset transfers made on or after January 1, 2026, and transfers within that window can delay coverage.
Children and Family Providers
Children qualify for IHSS when they have a disability that creates care needs beyond what a child of the same age would ordinarily require. Domestic services, heavy cleaning, yard work, and teaching tasks are not covered when the recipient is a minor.
Parents can serve as paid providers for their own minor children, but they have to complete the standard provider enrollment process, including a criminal background check.5California Department of Social Services. Important Information for Prospective Providers About the IHSS Program Provider Enrollment Process The same is true for any friend or family member you want to hire once you’re approved.
What IHSS Will Pay a Caregiver to Do
California law defines the covered categories as domestic services, personal care, paramedical tasks, protective supervision, medical accompaniment, yard hazard abatement, and teaching directed at reducing the need for other services.2California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 12300 Your social worker authorizes a specific number of minutes for each task, and a caregiver can only be paid for tasks that appear on your Notice of Action.6California Department of Social Services. IHSS Services and Time Conversion Chart
Domestic Services
Cleaning kitchens and bathrooms, sweeping and mopping, taking out the trash, laundry, grocery shopping, and preparing meals. Heavy cleaning like washing windows or moving furniture is a separate category. The social worker assigns time based on the size of your living space and how much of it your caregiver has to maintain.
Personal Care
This is where most authorized hours land for most recipients. It covers bathing, oral hygiene, grooming, dressing, feeding, bowel and bladder care, repositioning, skin care, range-of-motion exercises, transfers, and help with breathing equipment.2California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 12300 Personal care can also be authorized at your workplace if the tasks are the same ones approved for home and they help you keep your job. Those workplace hours come out of your existing total rather than adding new ones.
Paramedical Services
Paramedical tasks require a licensed health professional to order them and train the caregiver before the caregiver can perform them. Examples include administering medication or injections, blood and urine testing, wound care, catheter and ostomy care, tube feeding, and suctioning.7California Department of Social Services. IHSS Paramedical Services These services cannot be authorized retroactively to a date before the professional’s order reaches IHSS staff.
Protective Supervision
Protective supervision is available to people who cannot direct their own care because of cognitive impairments affecting memory, orientation, or judgment.8California Department of Social Services. SOC 821 – Assessment of Need for Protective Supervision The purpose is to prevent injury from behaviors like wandering or leaving appliances on. People living with dementia, autism, intellectual disabilities, and certain mental health conditions may qualify, though a diagnosis alone doesn’t guarantee approval. When authorized, protective supervision can push total monthly hours up significantly because it covers monitoring rather than discrete tasks.
Medical Accompaniment
A caregiver can accompany you to medical appointments, but only when you need hands-on help with authorized IHSS tasks during travel or at the destination. The county will not authorize accompaniment purely for transportation, and it has to check first whether Medi-Cal already provides non-emergency medical transport for you.9California Department of Social Services. All-County Letter No. 14-82 – Wait Times Associated with Accompaniment to Medical Appointments Caregiver wait time is paid when an appointment is expected to last 30 minutes or less. For longer appointments where the provider has no authorized tasks during the wait, that time generally isn’t compensable.
How Many Hours You Can Get
California law allows up to 283 service hours per month for recipients classified as severely impaired, and up to 195 hours per month for those who are not severely impaired, depending on the IHSS subprogram.10California State Auditor. Report 2020-109 Protective supervision recipients can reach the 283-hour ceiling in most cases. Your actual authorization will almost certainly land below the ceiling, because hours are calculated task by task from the functional index the social worker completes during the home visit. Each task gets a rank of one (independent) through five (cannot perform at all, even with help). Mental functions use a shorter three-point scale that drives the protective supervision decision.
Applying and the SOC 873
The application form is SOC 295, filed with your county IHSS office by phone, mail, or in person.1California Department of Social Services. In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Program Approved benefits are effective as of your application date, not the date of your assessment, so file the form as soon as you can and gather documents afterward.11California Department of Social Services. E-Note 133 – Effective Date of IHSS Program Benefits
The most important supporting document is the Health Care Certification form, SOC 873. A licensed health care professional has to complete it, certifying that you can’t perform certain daily activities independently and would be at risk of out-of-home placement without IHSS.12California Department of Social Services. SOC 873 – IHSS Program Health Care Certification Form Eligible professionals include physicians, physician assistants, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and public health nurses, among others. Fill in your identifying information before handing the form to your provider.
Before the home visit, keep a daily log for at least a week noting every task you struggle with, how long it takes, and what specifically prevents you from doing it on your own. Work through the categories the assessment covers: housework, laundry, shopping, meal preparation, bathing and grooming, dressing, bowel and bladder care, mobility inside the home, repositioning, eating, breathing, and cognitive functions like memory, orientation, and judgment. Applicants who walk in without this preparation are the ones who tend to be under-authorized, because they forget tasks or downplay how long things take. The typical timeline from application to approval runs eight to fourteen weeks.
If You’re Denied or Under-Authorized
When the Notice of Action arrives, read it against your log. If you’re denied, if your hours are lower than what your needs justify, or if you disagree with any part of the notice, you can request a state hearing before an administrative law judge. The deadline is 90 days from the effective date on the notice.
Timing matters when the county is cutting existing services. If you file the hearing request before the effective date on the Notice of Action and ask for “aid paid pending,” your current hours continue while the appeal is decided, and you won’t have to repay the cost of those services even if you lose. Miss the effective date and your hours drop while you wait for the hearing.