Arizona program
Money back for a break from caring
Arizona’s Lifespan Respite Voucher can reimburse approved care so you get a break from caregiving.
What it is
Arizona’s Lifespan Respite Voucher can reimburse approved care so you get a break from caregiving.
A few hours of cover can make rest possible when a child cannot be left alone. This program reimburses eligible respite expenses. Funding and the current limit need confirmation before you commit to paying for care.
Eligibility rules
- The care recipient must need constant care and be unable to stay alone. The Coalition can confirm whether living together or within five miles meets the residence rule for the current award.
- No other public program or insurer can be funding respite.
- The respite worker generally must be at least 18 and live outside the care recipient’s home. DES also lists excluded spouse, parent, child or guardian arrangements. The Coalition can confirm the current award’s relationship and residence restrictions before you choose a worker.
What you get
- Up to $2,400 for approved respite, subject to the award and available funds.
What the help includes
- The voucher is up to $2,400. Get the written award, with its dates, before you pay for care; costs from before the award are usually not covered.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the Caregiver Resource Line about the voucher’s current funding and approval process.
- Ask the Coalition which residence and caregiver records it needs. If you proceed, keep the award, care records, receipts and timesheets.
Caregiver Resource Line: 888-737-7494 · Official page ↗
After you ask
- The Arizona Caregiver Coalition works with DES on the voucher and reimburses accepted receipts.
- You send the award papers, care records, receipts, timesheets and a W-9. Review takes two to four weeks once everything is in.
Good to know
You pay first and claim reimbursement. Other funded respite, including through ALTCS, bars this voucher.
Other details
- The separate Family Caregiver Reimbursement Program has stopped taking applications. The Arizona Caregiver Coalition can confirm funding for the Lifespan Respite Voucher and the current award’s terms.
“Could the respite voucher help us pay for a break in caregiving? What would we need to pay first, and could you help us check the funding before we commit?”
Why I’m asking: I need to understand whether a break is affordable and which care costs can be reimbursed.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Call, ask about funding, pay for the hours and send the receipts.
Your social worker
The social worker can confirm whether respite is already coming through another route, which would bar this one.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- The Arizona Caregiver Coalition with the Department of Economic Security.
- Ask the agency
- “I live with and care for my child full time and get no other respite. Is the voucher programme open, and what is the cap?”
How to apply
First step: Call the Caregiver Resource Line on 888-737-7494 and ask whether the voucher is open.
- Call 888-737-7494 and ask whether the respite voucher is open and what the cap is now.
- Keep receipts and timesheets; reimbursement needs both.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Call the Caregiver Resource Line on 888-737-7494 and ask about the respite voucher.
What to gather
- Receipts and timesheets for respite hours
- Residence information for the Coalition to check under the applicable household rule.
How long: Not published.
What a yes looks like
A reimbursement against the receipts you sent.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Ask whether it is funding or the other-respite rule, and ask again next quarter if it is funding.
Watch out
- Approval dates and written award terms determine reimbursement; paying for care first does not guarantee repayment.
- Any other funded respite bars this one.
- The current advertised cap is $2,400, subject to the written award and funding. The Coalition confirms whether intake is open and which service dates qualify.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
The Arizona Caregiver Coalition advertises up to $2,400 for approved respite, subject to the written award and available funds.
Covers: Reimbursement for respite care hours
What it costs the family: Approved expenses are reimbursed under the award; pre-award care is not guaranteed payment.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Caregiver
- The Coalition confirms residence requirements: its near-home description differs from DES’s full-time shared-residence wording.
- Recipient
- needs constant care and cannot be left alone
- Exclusion
- no other publicly or insurance-funded respite
- Cap
- Up to $2,400 on the current Coalition page as reviewed September 16, 2026; the written award controls and no start date for this cap is established.
The trap: The Coalition advertises up to $2,400 as of September 16, 2026. The written award, available funding, allowed dates and reimbursement terms control; pre-award spending is not guaranteed payment.
Where I read this
- DES — Family Caregiver Support — Arizona Department of Economic Security, read September 10, 2026