The SOC 295 IHSS Application in California

What SOC 295 is for

SOC 295 is the application California counties use to open an In-Home Supportive Services case. The California Department of Social Services publishes the form. County social services offices accept it, file it, and later send a social worker to the home. If you are an adult child helping a parent stay home, this is the page that starts the IHSS file. It is not a Medi-Cal application, a provider enrollment packet, or a timesheet.

The program sits on Medi-Cal. The person who needs care must live in California, have a Medi-Cal eligibility determination, and live at home or in an abode of their own choosing. A hospital, nursing facility, or licensed community care facility is not that home. SOC 295 tells the county who is applying and how to reach them. The eligibility guide and the helping a parent page walk through those criteria before you treat the form as optional.

Who should appear on the application

The applicant is the person who needs care, not the adult child who is organizing the packet. Use the name that already appears on the Medi-Cal case when you have one. A name mismatch between SOC 295 and Medi-Cal is a common reason a file comes back. If you are filling the form for a parent, write their information in the applicant fields and use the helper or contact fields the form provides for yourself.

IHSS also serves some children. The same application idea applies: the child is the applicant, a licensed health professional still documents need, and a parent-provider follows tighter sub-program rules. Read IHSS for children if the recipient is a minor. Adult children helping a parent are the more common reader of this guide, and they still send SOC 295 to the county that serves the parent.