Assistance Programs in Kentucky

LIHEAP helps low-income Kentucky households with home heating and cooling costs. It runs through Community Action Kentucky's network of local Community Action Agencies, which cover all 120 counties, not through a single state office. Contact the Community Action Agency serving your county to apply, or call 1-800-456-3452 to find your local office. Applications open in set seasonal windows.

Kentucky's Weatherization Assistance Program makes free energy-efficiency repairs for income-eligible households: insulation, air sealing, and heating-system fixes that lower future bills. Kentucky Housing Corporation runs the program and it is delivered by local Community Action Agencies, so you apply through the agency serving your county. Homeowners and renters can both qualify.

SNAP is Kentucky'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 kynect at kynect.ky.gov, by phone at 1-855-306-8959, or at your local Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) office. The DCBS Family Support line answers Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm Eastern.

WIC gives healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and health referrals to pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5. Kentucky WIC runs through local health departments. Call the state WIC line at 1-877-597-0367 to find your local clinic, or learn more at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services WIC page.

Kentucky Medicaid is free or low-cost health coverage for children, pregnant people, parents, older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income adults. Kentucky expanded Medicaid in 2014 to cover adults ages 19 to 64 with income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, and KCHIP covers children through CHIP. Apply online through kynect at kynect.ky.gov/benefits, or call kynect at 1-855-459-6328.

The Child Care Assistance Program, CCAP, helps low-income Kentucky families pay for child care while parents work, train, or go to school. Apply online through kynect at kynect.ky.gov or by phone at 1-855-306-8959. A prescreening tool on kynect can tell you if you likely qualify before you apply.

K-TAP, the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program, is the state's monthly cash assistance for low-income families with children. It is Kentucky's version of TANF, and most adults take part in the Kentucky Works program, which helps you move toward a job. Apply online through kynect at kynect.ky.gov, by phone at 1-855-306-8959, or at your local DCBS office.

Temporary weekly payments if you lost work through no fault of your own, from the Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance. File your claim online at kcc.ky.gov, which is the fastest way, or by phone at 502-564-2900 using the automated system. Make sure you are on a .ky.gov website when you file, and only trust unemployment emails from an @ky.gov address.

Kentucky has four regional civil legal aid programs that give free legal help to low-income residents on housing, family, public benefits, consumer, and other noncriminal problems. Which office serves you depends on where you live: Kentucky Legal Aid in the south and west, Legal Aid Society around Louisville, Legal Aid of the Bluegrass in the north, and AppalReD Legal Aid in eastern Kentucky. Find your program and free self-help legal information at kyjustice.org.

Dial 2-1-1 from any Kentucky phone for free, confidential help finding local assistance with food, housing, utility bills, healthcare, and more. Kentucky 211 is a United Way service that answers around the clock, every day. You can also text your zip code to 898211 or search at kentucky211.org.