Assistance Programs in Iowa

Iowa's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP, helps qualifying households pay part of their winter heating costs. You apply at your local community action agency, not online, and each agency serves a set of counties. Applications open October 1 for households with a member age 60 or older or with a disability, November 1 for everyone else, and close April 30.

Iowa's Weatherization Assistance Program makes free energy-efficiency improvements, like insulation and air sealing, that lower future utility bills for income-eligible households. Both homeowners and renters can qualify, with priority for older adults, people with disabilities, and families with children. Apply through your local community action agency, the same offices that run energy assistance.

SNAP is Iowa's food assistance program: monthly food money loaded onto an EBT card you use like a debit card at most grocery stores. Apply online through Iowa's HHS Services Portal at hhsservices.iowa.gov, which handles SNAP, FIP cash, and Medicaid on one application, or at your local Iowa HHS office. You can also apply by mail or ask questions at 1-800-972-2017.

WIC gives healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and health referrals to pregnant and postpartum people, infants, and children up to age 5. Iowa WIC runs through local clinics, and you set up benefits at an appointment. Find your local clinic on the Iowa WIC map, or call 1-800-972-2017 to get started.

Hawki, short for Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa, is low-cost health and dental coverage for children under 19 in working families who earn too much for Medicaid. Most families pay nothing, and no family pays more than $40 a month for all of its children combined. Apply online through the HHS Services Portal at hhsservices.iowa.gov, or call Hawki Member Services at 1-800-257-8563.

Iowa Medicaid is free or low-cost health coverage for children, pregnant people, parents, older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income adults. The Iowa Health and Wellness Plan covers low-income adults ages 19 to 64 under Medicaid expansion. Apply online through the HHS Services Portal at hhsservices.iowa.gov, or call 1-800-972-2017.

Iowa offers a refundable Earned Income Tax Credit worth 15 percent of your federal EITC. Because it is refundable, it pays out as cash even if you owe no state tax. Claim it on your Iowa income tax return after you qualify for the federal credit.

The Family Investment Program, FIP, is Iowa's version of TANF: monthly cash assistance for low-income families with children. Most adults take part in PROMISE JOBS, the work and training side of the program. Apply online through Iowa's HHS Services Portal at hhsservices.iowa.gov or at your local Iowa HHS office.

Temporary weekly payments if you lost work through no fault of your own, from Iowa Workforce Development. File your claim online at iowaworks.gov, which is the fastest way, or get help from the customer service line at 1-866-239-0843, Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm.

Iowa Legal Aid provides free civil legal help to low-income Iowans on housing, family, public benefits, consumer, and other noncriminal matters. Call the statewide intake line at 1-800-532-1503 if you are under 60, open Monday through Friday, 9 to 11am and 1:30 to 3:30pm and closed Thursday afternoon. Iowans 60 and older have a separate line at 1-800-992-8161.

Dial 2-1-1 from any Iowa phone, or call 1-800-244-7431, for free, confidential help finding local assistance with housing, utilities, food, healthcare, and more. 211 Iowa connects you to thousands of local programs and answers every day. You can also text your zip code to 898211 or search at 211iowa.org.