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New MexiCare — Caregiver Money With an Income Test, Not a Service Test

A state caregiver programme paying financial assistance and providing training to someone helping a friend or family member with daily activities. The gate is age 60 or over, help needed with two or more activities of daily living, income up to $3,387 a month for an individual or $6,774 for a couple, and resources up to $20,322 or $40,644. Service history plays no part — which is exactly why it is worth knowing about when the veteran-specific route does not fit.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A state caregiver programme paying financial assistance and providing training to someone helping a friend or family member with daily activities. The gate is age 60 or over, help needed with two or more activities of daily living, income up to $3,387 a month for an individual or $6,774 for a couple, and resources up to $20,322 or $40,644. Service history plays no part — which is exactly why it is worth knowing about when the veteran-specific route does not fit.

What it's worth: Financial assistance and training for a caregiver, where the person cared for is 60 or over and within the income and resource limits

  • The department states New MexiCare provides financial assistance and training to caregivers who are assisting friends or family members with daily activities due to physical or cognitive limitations.
  • The department frames the aim as enabling older people to remain in their homes rather than enter nursing facilities, and reducing emergency room use.
  • Applicants must be 60 or older.
  • The person cared for must have cognitive or physical limitations requiring help with at least two activities of daily living, among them feeding, dressing, personal hygiene, incontinence management, toileting and ambulation.
  • The monthly income limit is up to $3,387 for an individual and $6,774 for a couple.
  • The resource limit, counting combined savings and checking accounts, is up to $20,322 for an individual and $40,644 for a couple.
  • Applications are made through an online portal, and an application may be saved and continued later.
  • Submitted applications are reviewed by department staff, who then contact the applicant about next steps.
  • The department states the programme is available in all thirty-three counties.
  • The department states that services under its caregiver work include respite care, training and education, access to support groups, and financial assistance.
  • The programme sits in the department’s Long-Term Care Division alongside Veteran-Directed Care, Alzheimer’s and dementia services, care transitions and kinship caregiving.
  • The page read this session makes no reference to veterans or to military service in the New MexiCare eligibility rules.

Who is entitled to it

  • Your home is in this state.

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.

From what you have told us so far, you appear to qualify.

How to claim it

  1. 1Check the two-activity test before anything else. The person cared for must need help with at least two activities of daily living — feeding, dressing, personal hygiene, incontinence management, toileting or ambulation — and that is the gate that decides most applications.
  2. 2Run the numbers against both limits, not one. Income is capped at $3,387 a month for an individual and $6,774 for a couple; resources at $20,322 and $40,644 counting savings and checking together.
  3. 3Remember VA compensation and pension count as income for a means test. That is what most often pushes a veteran household over an otherwise comfortable ceiling, and it is worth calculating before applying.
  4. 4Apply online and use the save function. The department expressly allows an application to be started, saved and continued, which matters when you are assembling financial records around a caregiving schedule.
  5. 5Ask about the training component, not only the money. Caregiver training and access to support groups are part of what the programme offers and are available while a financial application is still being reviewed.
  6. 6Apply here as well as, not instead of, the veteran-specific route. The two programmes sit in the same division, and the department is the right body to tell you which fits your household better.
  7. 7If you are 60 or over and caring for someone in a different arrangement — a grandchild, or someone with dementia — ask about the division’s kinship caregiving and dementia services rather than assuming this is the only door.
Form
Online application through the department’s portal
File with
The Aging and Long-Term Services Department
Periodic recertification
Confirmed at intervals rather than annually.
Worth knowingThis record is in a veteran corpus deliberately. A veteran household that fails the federal primary care gate on the veteran-directed programme very often passes this one, because the test here is age and money rather than enrolment. The two live in the same division, so one phone call can cover both.
Known gapThe department does not publish the amount of financial assistance a caregiver receives, or how long an award runs. The eligibility figures above are stated; the payment is not, and it should be asked about directly rather than assumed.
CorrectionThe age test attaches to the person needing care, not to whoever is doing the caring. A caregiver in their thirties looking after a parent over 60 is inside the programme; a caregiver over 60 looking after a much younger adult is not what this particular programme is built for.

Sources

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