Kansas grants
& benefits: refunds, KanCare and tax relief.

A homeowner who qualifies can get part of the year's home property tax back, through one of three claims. All three require residency for all of 2025 and a home you owned and lived in during 2025, valued at $350,000 or less.

You cannot collect more than one. KDOR's free Homestead WebFile works out all three and picks the largest. First-time claimants file on paper or with third-party software, then can switch to WebFile in later years.

• Homestead (K-40H): up to $700. Household income of $43,389 or less, and you must be 55 or older, blind or disabled, raising a child under 18, a disabled veteran, or a qualifying surviving spouse.
• SAFESR (K-40PT): 75% of the property tax paid on your home. You must be 65 or older for all of 2025 with household income of $25,380 or less.
• K-40SVR: refunds the rise in your tax above a base year. For people 65 or older and disabled veterans with household income of $58,041 or less (the $350,000 home value test applies to the base year).

A disabled veteran can file the Homestead claim at any age, as long as household income is $43,389 or less. KDOR's definition of disabled veteran includes the groups listed in the federal rule 38 C.F.R. 3.7.

The surviving spouse of a disabled veteran stays eligible until remarrying. So does the surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty during active service.

If your tax bill keeps climbing, compare K-40SVR. It pays back the difference between this year's tax and your base year, which is the year before you first qualify. Any base year earlier than 2021 is treated as 2021.

KanCare is the name for Medicaid and CHIP here, run by KDHE's Division of Health Care Finance. The state never adopted the Affordable Care Act expansion, and KFF's October 2026 tracker places it with nine other holdouts. Eligibility depends on fitting a covered group.

Those groups include children up to 19, pregnant women, low-income families with children, people 65 or older, people who are blind or disabled by Social Security rules, SSI recipients, and former foster youth under 26. KDHE says people outside these groups do not qualify.

MediKan is a separate program paid only with state money, with narrower coverage than KanCare. Apply for either on the Medical Consumer Self-Service portal or call the KanCare Clearinghouse at 800-792-4884.

From October 1, 2026, some refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees and survivors of domestic violence or trafficking can lose KanCare under federal law. Green card holders, COFA migrants and Cuban or Haitian immigrants are not affected.

SHICK, short for Senior Health Insurance Counseling for Kansas, is run by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS). Trained community volunteers answer questions about Medicare, Medicare Supplement plans, Part D and long-term care.

The counseling is free and confidential, and the counselors do not work for any insurance company. Call 800-860-5260 to reach a person rather than an automated system.

The state sales tax on groceries fell to zero on January 1, 2025, ending a phase-down from 6.5%. It covers food, food ingredients and certain prepared foods, so receipts now show two rates: one for qualifying items and one for everything else.

Working residents can claim a state earned income tax credit equal to 17% of their federal EITC. It is for full-year residents only, so part-year residents and nonresidents cannot take it.

Social Security benefits are no longer taxed by the state for tax years starting after December 31, 2023. Benefits included in federal adjusted gross income are subtracted on Schedule S, Part A.

SNAP goes by the Food Assistance program name here. Apply through the DCF self-service portal, or call DCF benefits assistance at 1-888-369-4777. A USDA-approved waiver drops candy and soft drinks from eligible foods for two years starting February 15, 2027.

LIEAP, the state's version of LIHEAP, pays one winter heating benefit a year. The 2026 window ran January 20 to March 31, with gross monthly income at or below 150% of poverty: $1,956 for one person or $4,019 for four.

An adult at the address must be responsible for heating costs. In 2025, more than 43,000 households received an average benefit of about $680, according to DCF.