West Virginia grants
& benefits: WV PATH, tax relief and Medicaid.

From January 1, 2026, regular, diet and zero-calorie soda could not be bought with benefits under a waiver USDA approved on August 4, 2025. Water, milk, juice and energy drinks were never affected.

On June 22, 2026, a federal court in Washington, DC vacated USDA's approval of the waiver in Aragon v. Rollins. USDA now lists the West Virginia waiver as one whose implementation may not proceed, and it told retailers to stop enforcing the ban.

The rest of SNAP works as before. You apply on WV PATH or at a county DoHS office, and you can file a form with only your name, address and signature to lock in your filing date, then finish the full application and interview later.

Income limits, deposit days and how to apply are in our West Virginia food stamps guide.

Retirees with federal adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less ($100,000 on a joint return) have deducted all taxable Social Security since tax year 2022. HB 4880, passed in 2024, phased the same break in for everyone else.

Higher earners could subtract 35% of their benefits for 2024 and 65% for 2025. For tax year 2026 the deduction reaches 100%, so no Social Security income is taxed by the state regardless of income.

The change interacts with the $8,000 modification for people 65 or older or certified permanently disabled. You get the larger of the two, which is why the state says many retirees will only notice the Social Security change once the full deduction applies.

The Homestead Exemption removes the first $20,000 of assessed value from an owner-occupied home if the owner is 65 or older or permanently and totally disabled. You sign up through your county assessor, not the state.

Being on the Homestead Exemption opens the Senior Citizens Tax Credit, a refund for homeowners who paid their property tax and whose income is under 150% of the federal poverty guidelines. You can claim it on MyTaxes without filing a full income tax return.

A second refund, the Homestead Excess Property Tax Credit, goes to homeowners whose 2025 property tax topped 4% of 2024 income, up to $1,000. Any Senior Citizens Tax Credit you receive lowers it.

It has its own income cap: $46,950 for one person, $63,450 for two, $79,950 for three or $96,450 for four, plus $16,500 for each extra person.

• Senior Citizens Tax Credit, 2025 income limits (150% of poverty), 1 person: $23,475
• 2 people: $31,725
• 3 people: $39,975
• 4 people: $48,225 (add $8,250 for each extra person)

The Disabled Veteran Real Property Tax Credit is a refundable state credit that pays back 100% of the property tax timely paid on a veteran's home. It is open to veterans rated 90 to 100% permanently and totally disabled whose homestead is used only as a residence.

To claim it, file the IT-140 state return with form DV-1, your property tax receipts and your VA disability rating letter. A surviving spouse can keep claiming it if the veteran claimed it the year before, the spouse has not remarried, and the home has not been sold or reclassified.

This credit stands alone. Anyone who takes it cannot also claim the Senior Citizens Tax Credit or the Homestead Excess Property Tax Credit for the same payments.

West Virginia is one of 41 places, counting DC, that adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion. That is why low-income adults 19 to 64 can be covered here, in what the state calls the Adult Expansion Group.

Under the federal H.R. 1 law, some of these adults need 80 or more hours of work or approved community activities monthly starting January 1, 2027, unless exempt. Current members face it at their regular 2027 renewal, starting with renewals due in March 2027. Applicants may need to meet it in the prior month.

Children under 19 who do not qualify for Medicaid can get WVCHIP, which covers dental, vision and mental health care. Low-income people on Medicare can apply on WV PATH for QMB, SLIMB or QI, which pay the Part B premium; QMB also pays Part A premiums and copays.

West Virginia spells its heating program LIEAP. It opens for a short window each winter, usually after DoHS mails applications to targeted households, and Community Action agencies and regional aging offices also take applications. A crisis part helps households about to lose heat.

The Special Reduced Rate Service Program takes 20% off gas and electric bills from November to March and American Water bills all year. It covers SNAP recipients over 60, SSI recipients over 18 and WV WORKS families, and applications go out every October.

Homeowners with a broken or unsafe furnace or cooling unit can ask a Community Action agency about the LIHEAP Repair and Replacement Program, which runs until funds are spent and uses the same income limits as LIEAP.

For a cooling unit, the household must include someone who is disabled, 60 or older, or 5 or younger.