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A Subsidy Paid to the Person Doing the Caring — With No Veteran Route Into It

Home Care for the Elderly pays a subsidy to the person providing a full-time family-type living arrangement in a private home for up to three elderly people, plus payments for medical, pharmaceutical and dental costs not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or insurance, and special supplements where needed. It is one of very few places where this state pays the caregiver rather than a provider. Eligibility is set to criteria substantially similar to Medicaid nursing home eligibility, and nothing in it turns on military service.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

Home Care for the Elderly pays a subsidy to the person providing a full-time family-type living arrangement in a private home for up to three elderly people, plus payments for medical, pharmaceutical and dental costs not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or insurance, and special supplements where needed. It is one of very few places where this state pays the caregiver rather than a provider. Eligibility is set to criteria substantially similar to Medicaid nursing home eligibility, and nothing in it turns on military service.

What it's worth: A subsidy to the caregiver, set on a departmental schedule and on the cared-for person's finances

  • No figure is claimed. §430.605 requires the department to develop a SCHEDULE of subsidy payments and to base them on the financial status of the person receiving care, so the amount is neither in the statute nor fixed across households.
  • The programme is capped by appropriation. §430.603 says in terms that it must be operated within the funds appropriated by the Legislature, which is why a waiting list is normal.
  • The arrangement is limited to three or fewer elderly persons in a private home, provided on a nonprofit basis.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served — and this programme is open on the same terms as it is to anyone else.
  • The subsidy is paid to the person providing the care, so a family member can be the applicant.
  • The person being cared for must be 60 or over.
  • Your home is in Florida.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Understand who is paid, because this is the unusual part. §430.605 directs the schedule of subsidy payments to persons PROVIDING home care, and to providers of goods and services — not to the elderly person as an allowance.
  2. 2Check the eligibility test before you invest time. §430.606 sets the criteria as substantially similar to those used to determine eligibility for nursing home care under Medicaid. That is an assets-and-care-level test, not a simple income line.
  3. 3Know what the payments cover. §430.605 requires a support and maintenance element covering housing, food, clothing and incidentals; payments for medical, pharmaceutical and dental services essential to health and not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or insurance; and special supplements where needed, including extraordinary medical, dental or pharmaceutical expenses.
  4. 4The caregiver has to be approved first. §430.603 makes a person approved to provide care, goods or services eligible for the subsidy, and §430.604 requires the department to notify anyone found unable to provide the care that they are not eligible.
  5. 5Do not expect a veteran route, because there is none. The word does not appear anywhere in chapter 430.
  6. 6Ask the county veteran service officer to run the federal side at the same time. Aid and Attendance and the VA caregiver programmes are separate systems with separate money, and a household may be inside more than one.
Form
No statewide form in the statute — intake is through the area agency on aging serving your county
File with
Department of Elder Affairs, through the area agency on aging
Periodic re-certification
Re-certify on the schedule the agency sets.
Worth knowingMarked as general-population law rather than a veteran benefit, because nothing in it turns on service. It is published because caregiver support is the thinnest thing in this corpus and this is the state programme that actually pays a family member.
Known gapThe subsidy schedule itself is a departmental document rather than a statutory figure and was not read this session. The amount a particular household receives cannot be predicted from the statute alone.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.