If you are a pregnant teen or a teen parent and you don’t have enough money to pay for your baby’s needs or medical care, there are many government programs that will help.
You and your baby may be able to get benefits such as:
- WIC which helps you buy healthy food for you and your children.
- CalFresh which pays for additional groceries.
- Medi-Cal for medical insurance.
- CalWORKS which provides cash to families to pay for living expenses. If you are under 19 and have not yet graduated high school, it comes with CALEARN which will help you with childcare and give you incentive payments for getting good grades and graduating high school.
- SSI which provides you with cash for living expenses if you are disabled.
- GR which provides cash to pay for your living expenses if you are single and not living with your child.
Get detailed information on some of these benefits.
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WIC
WIC is a federally-funded nutrition program that helps pregnant women, new mothers and young children eat...
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MEDI-CAL
Medi-Cal is FREE health insurance, which covers medical, dental and mental health care for low-income individuals. ***All children and youth in foster care are eligible and should have Medi-Cal.***
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Cal-Learn
Cal-Learn is a special program to help teen parents receiving CalWORKs finish high school or get a GED. You cannot receive CalWORKs/Cal-Learn if you are receving foster care funding!
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General Relief (“GR”)
General Relief (“GR”) is a Los Angeles County program that helps people who are not eligible for other benefit programs and have almost no money.
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Foster Funding And Infant Supplement
If you have an open foster care case and your baby is living with you but does not have an open case with DCFS, your caregiver will receive an additional $411 per month for the care of your baby. This is called an "Infant Supplement."
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SSI
SSI is a cash benefit program for low-income persons age 65 and over and blind and disabled persons of any age including infants and children. You must be a U.S. citizen living in the country legally to get SSI, or...
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CalFresh
CalFresh is a federal program that helps low-income people buy food they need for good health and nutrition. Eligibility for CalFresh is made on a case-by-case basis and depends on a number of different things.
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CalWORKs
If you are not in foster care or if you were and your case is now closed, you may be eligible to receive CalWORKs. CalWORKs is a welfare program that gives cash aid and services to eligible needy California families. There are time limits as to how long you can receive funding from CalWORKs.
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