Eligibility and Policy Design
We work through the dependency definition, adult dependent scope, qualifying relationships, and hour bank treatment, then configure your rules in the platform so they apply consistently.
Most care benefit eligibility rules quietly exclude the employees who need care most. A policy written around children under 13 leaves out an employee whose 22-year-old son has a learning disability and needs supervision, or whose adult sibling has cerebral palsy and lives with them. The employee is providing daily care and is not eligible for the benefit you funded to help exactly that situation. This is an eligibility design problem before it is a service problem. The decisions a Benefits Leader has to make are specific: whether dependency is defined by age or by care need, whether adult dependents are in scope, whether the qualifying relationship extends past a legal dependent, and whether the hour bank recognises that disability care is ongoing rather than episodic. Get those four wrong and the benefit reads as unavailable to the population it should serve. Delivery then runs through Care Finder, where a dedicated care consultant gives the employee 1:1 support sourcing caregivers with relevant experience, because for a dependent with additional needs, caregiver experience is the requirement rather than caregiver availability. Care Funds and My Choice Care fund the arrangement, which matters because many families already have someone who knows their dependent's routine and needs that person paid rather than replaced.
Eligibility design first, then delivery through the products built for complex care.
We work through the dependency definition, adult dependent scope, qualifying relationships, and hour bank treatment, then configure your rules in the platform so they apply consistently.
A dedicated care consultant runs the search with the employee, prioritising caregiver experience with the specific condition and the family's routine.
Where a family already has someone who knows the dependent, Helpr vets and onboards that person and pays them directly against your subsidy.
Helpr Network Care provides vetted professional cover at $45-50 per hour with a four-hour minimum so the primary family caregiver can work, rest, or attend appointments.
Disability care is continuous rather than episodic. Care Fund allocations can be structured to reflect recurring support rather than occasional backup.
See how much of your care spend supports dependents with additional needs, which is often the clearest evidence that the eligibility change was warranted.
Whether your care benefit covers disabled dependents comes down to how four rules are written. First, is dependency defined by age or by demonstrated care need. Second, are adult dependents in scope at all. Third, does the qualifying relationship extend beyond a legally declared dependent to an adult child, sibling, or parent living in the household. Fourth, does the hour bank account for care that is continuous rather than occasional. Helpr works these decisions through with your team and configures the result, so the policy you publish and the coverage employees experience are the same thing.
What broader dependent eligibility changes for HR and for the employees affected.
Replacing an age cut-off with a care-need test brings employees supporting disabled adult dependents into a benefit that currently excludes them by default.
A dedicated care consultant provides 1:1 support sourcing caregivers with genuine disability and neurodiversity experience, rather than sending the employee a provider list.
Many families rely on someone who already knows their dependent. My Choice Care vets and pays that person directly at a $12-20 per hour average subsidy.
Employees carrying long-term disability care with no employer support are among the most likely to reduce hours or leave, and the least likely to say why.
Because eligibility is usually inherited from a childcare program and defined by age, most often children under 13. An employee supporting a 22-year-old with a learning disability, or an adult sibling with a physical disability, falls outside that definition despite carrying a daily care load. The exclusion is a drafting artefact rather than a deliberate policy choice.
Send us your current policy language and we will show you where coverage breaks.
Women-owned business enterprise certification
Dedicated support for disability and neurodiversity care
Consistent eligibility in every market
Share your current dependent care policy. We will identify who it excludes and how to extend coverage through Care Finder.
To help us assist you faster, please include the reason for your message so the relevant team can reach out as soon as possible.
To help us assist you faster, please include the reason for your message so the relevant team can reach out as soon as possible.