What benefits am I eligible for? Start with one number
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Most federal assistance programs decide eligibility the same way: they compare your household income to the federal poverty level for your household size. Get that one percentage, and you can tell in about a minute which programs are worth applying for. For 2026, the poverty level is $15,960 for one person and $33,000 for a household of four (HHS). Programs then set their cutoff at a multiple of that figure — 130%, 135%, 138%, 150% — and where you land tells you which doors are open.
That’s the shortcut. Below is the full ladder, what each rung unlocks, and the mistakes that cause people to skip benefits they’d actually get.
First, find your percentage
Take your household’s gross annual income and compare it to the number for your household size. Here are the 2026 guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and DC, published by the Department of Health and Human Services in January 2026. Alaska and Hawaii use higher figures.
| Household size | 100% (the poverty level) | 130% | 135% | 138% | 150% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,960 | $20,748 | $21,546 | $22,025 | $23,940 |
| 2 | $21,640 | $28,132 | $29,214 | $29,863 | $32,460 |
| 3 | $27,320 | $35,516 | $36,882 | $37,702 | $40,980 |
| 4 | $33,000 | $42,900 | $44,550 | $45,540 | $49,500 |
Add $5,680 per person for households larger than eight.
Those odd-looking percentages aren’t arbitrary. Each one is a real cutoff written into a real program, which is why the columns are worth knowing.
What each rung unlocks
130% — food assistance. SNAP sets its gross monthly income limit at 130% of the poverty level, with a separate net income test at 100% after allowable deductions (USDA Food and Nutrition Service). For fiscal year 2026, running October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, the maximum monthly benefit in the 48 states and DC is $298 for one person and $994 for a household of four, rising $218 for each additional member (USDA FNS).
Worth knowing: the maximum is a ceiling, not the standard payment. Your actual benefit is the maximum minus 30% of your net income, so households near the cutoff receive less.
135% — phone and internet. The FCC’s Lifeline program discounts phone or broadband service by up to $9.25 a month, or up to $34.25 a month on Tribal lands, for households at or below 135% of the poverty guidelines (FCC).
If you’re thinking of the bigger internet discount you heard about, that was the Affordable Connectivity Program, and it ended in June 2024, cutting off roughly 23 million households that were getting up to $30 a month (Congressional Research Service). Plenty of articles still tell you to apply for it. You can’t. Lifeline survived the ACP’s end and is what remains.
138% — health coverage. In states that expanded Medicaid, adults under 65 generally qualify at or below 138% of the poverty level. In states that didn’t expand, eligibility is far narrower and usually depends on having children, a disability, or being pregnant. Medicaid is administered state by state, so the only reliable answer comes from your own state’s agency. Above the Medicaid line, subsidized marketplace coverage through HealthCare.gov is the next stop.
150% — energy bills. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps with heating and cooling costs, and states commonly set eligibility at 150% of the poverty level or 60% of the state median income, whichever they choose (HHS Administration for Children and Families). LIHEAP is run by states, tribes, and territories rather than the federal government directly, so application windows and benefit amounts vary a great deal. The national referral line is 1-866-674-6327.
Above all of these — the tax credit most people forget. The Earned Income Tax Credit reaches considerably further up the income scale than the programs above, and it’s refundable, meaning you get the money even if you owe no tax. For tax year 2026 the maximum credit is $664 with no qualifying children, $4,427 with one, $7,316 with two, and $8,231 with three or more (IRS). Investment income has to stay under $12,200.
The EITC is the single most commonly missed benefit on this list, because claiming it requires filing a return — and people whose income is low enough to qualify often assume they don’t need to file at all.
The shortcut inside the shortcut: categorical eligibility
Here’s the part that saves the most time. Many programs will accept your enrollment in *another* program as proof of eligibility, so you don’t have to document your income twice.
Enrollment in SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, or Federal Public Housing Assistance automatically qualifies you for Lifeline, for example. Most states apply the same logic to LIHEAP, treating SNAP, SSI, or TANF participation as automatic qualification.
The practical implication: apply for the hardest one first. If you qualify for SNAP, get that approved, then use it as your qualifying proof everywhere else. Working in the other order means proving your income from scratch every time.
The official checkers, and what they’re good for
Two federal tools will screen you against a wide set of programs:
- Benefits.gov runs a questionnaire covering more than 1,000 federal and state programs and returns a list of ones you may qualify for.
- USA.gov’s benefits section is a plainer directory, organized by situation rather than by agency.
Both are genuinely useful and neither is a decision. They screen against program rules; they don’t see your actual state’s variations, your deductions, or the local programs that never appear in a federal database. Treat the output as a shortlist to go verify, not an answer.
Three things that cause people to miss out
Assuming you earn too much. This is the big one, and the table above exists to settle it in ten seconds rather than in a vague impression. A household of four at $42,000 is under the SNAP gross limit. Plenty of people in that position have never applied because it didn’t occur to them that they’d be close.
Not counting household size correctly. Programs generally count people you live with and share food or expenses with, which is not always the same as who’s on your lease or your tax return. Getting this wrong in either direction changes the answer.
Stopping at the federal level. States, counties, and utilities run their own assistance programs, and those are where a lot of the real money sits — property tax relief, state EITC top-ups, utility hardship funds, county emergency assistance. No national article can enumerate these for you. Your state’s health and human services website is the place to look.
What we’d actually do
If you want the honest, unglamorous version: spend twenty minutes once. Find your household size and gross annual income. Locate your row in the table above. Note every column your income falls under. Then apply for the highest-value program you clear — usually SNAP or Medicaid — and use that approval to speed up the rest.
The reason this beats browsing program lists is that eligibility isn’t really a list. It’s one number, checked repeatedly.
If you’re not sure where you land, how to find unclaimed money is a good companion piece — it covers money that’s already yours and waiting, which needs no eligibility test at all.