California LifeLine 2026: Who Qualifies for Discounted Phone and Internet

You qualify for California LifeLine if anyone in your household gets Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI, WIC, CalWORKs or another listed program, or if household income is up to $24,600 a year for one person or $33,300 for two. The state takes up to $19 a month off one home phone or cell phone plan, and a standard wireless LifeLine plan includes unlimited talk and text and 6 GB of data. Call a participating phone company today to start enrollment. If you also qualify for federal Lifeline, worth up to $9.25 more, apply for it too: since February 1, 2026, it needs its own application.

Who qualifies in 2026

You qualify one of two ways. The first is a program: you or anyone in your household is enrolled in one of these.

• Medi-Cal, CalFresh (SNAP), SSI or WIC
• CalWORKs, TANF, StanWORKs, Welfare-to-Work or GAIN
• LIHEAP energy help, the National School Lunch Program, Federal Public Housing Assistance or Section 8
• Federal Veterans and Survivors Pension
• Tribal TANF, Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, income-eligible Tribal Head Start or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations

A child's enrollment counts: if your child gets Medi-Cal or free school lunch, an adult applies, names the child on the form and attaches the child's proof. A new CalFresh or Medi-Cal approval also works as proof.

The second way is income, using these limits for June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027. Count everyone's yearly income before taxes, including wages, self-employment, Social Security, unemployment, child support and public assistance.

The person applying must not be claimed as a dependent on someone else's tax return.

California LifeLine and federal Lifeline side by side

Both discounts can sit on the same plan, up to $28.25 a month combined, and more on Tribal lands. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) runs California LifeLine; the FCC runs federal Lifeline through USAC. Since February 1, 2026, each has its own enrollment and its own yearly renewal.

If nobody in your household gets Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI, federal housing aid or a veterans or survivors pension, and you qualify through WIC, school lunch or LIHEAP or with income above the federal limit but within California's, skip the federal application: California pays the federal amount itself. Applicants without a Social Security number get that make-up too. Everyone else files the federal application, CalWORKs families included, because CalWORKs brings Medi-Cal automatically. The Administrator checks for those programs, and the make-up skips anyone on one of them who never applies. Our federal Lifeline guide walks through it.

What the discount pays for

Cell phone. Under CPUC Decision 26-10-034, adopted October 8, 2026, wireless companies must move customers who get less data to a no-cost Tier 1 plan by February 1, 2027: unlimited talk and text and 8 GB, or 12.5 GB if you get federal Lifeline or the state's make-up for it, with at least 30 days' notice. Larger Tier 2 (15 GB) and Tier 3 (20 GB) plans start later and tie you to your company for 60 or 90 days.

Home phone. You get up to $19 off monthly flat-rate service and up to $39 off the connection or conversion charge. Your bill also drops the public purpose program surcharges, the CPUC user fee, federal excise tax, local franchise taxes and the State 911 tax.

Home internet. The CPUC's three-year Home Broadband Pilot puts up to $20 a month toward standalone internet, or up to $30 toward internet bundled with phone service from the same company. Eligibility is the same, and it uses your household's one LifeLine discount, so choose phone, internet or a bundle.

What to do today

1. Pick a company. Enter your ZIP code in the Provider Search, or call the California LifeLine Call Center at 1-866-272-0349 for the companies serving your address.
2. Call the company and say: "I qualify for California LifeLine through [Medi-Cal / CalFresh / my household income]. Please start my enrollment [and my federal Lifeline application], and tell me my monthly price after approval." For a home phone, ask for the interest-free payment plan on start-up charges.
3. Finish the Administrator's form within 45 days. Some companies complete it with you on the call; otherwise a PINK envelope with an Enrollment Code arrives within about a week. Finish it at CaliforniaLifeLine.com or mail it to California LifeLine Administrator, P.O. Box 138014, Sacramento, CA 95813.
4. Fill the boxes that sink applications. Sign, print your name, add your birth date and the last four digits of your Social Security number (no SSN: say so on the form and attach a government-issued ID), and initial the one-discount-per-household box. An incomplete form comes back for you to redo, but a denial for a missing item, a late form or a skipped Household Worksheet cannot be appealed: you start over with your phone company.
5. Attach copies of your ID and proof. Use a Medi-Cal Benefits Identification Card, a CalFresh Notice of Approval from the last 10 days or an SSA benefit verification letter from the past 12 months; for income, the front page of last year's tax return, three consecutive months of pay stubs from the past year, or benefit statements.
6. Track it. Use Check Your Status on CaliforniaLifeLine.com or call 1-877-858-7463, weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific.

The discount starts on approval. On a home phone you pay regular rates meanwhile, then get a credit back to your service start or enrollment request date, whichever is later; ask the phone company for a check if the credit reaches $10. A wireless company can hold the handset until approval.

Keep the discount: renewal and use

Renew every year. The Administrator sends a renewal form before your anniversary date, and you have 45 days to return it online or by mail. Unless a CalFresh or Medi-Cal records check confirms you, attach fresh proof such as a benefit verification letter or pay stubs. Miss the deadline and the discount ends; reapply if you still qualify. Renew federal Lifeline too when USAC asks.

Wireless customers get Administrator reminders by text from 345345 and letters under My Account on CaliforniaLifeLine.com, not by mail. On a LifeLine cell plan, use the phone at least once every 30 days: after 30 days of no use, the company sends a notice and cancels service if you still have not used it 15 days later.

One discount per household

Your household gets one LifeLine discount, on a home phone, a cell phone or internet, from one company. A household is everyone at your address who shares income and expenses, so roommates who keep their money separate can each apply; return the Household Worksheet the Administrator sends to show it. A household member who uses a TTY, or a Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program participant, gets a second discounted line, with a medical certificate if the program did not supply the TTY. A household with two discounts loses them.

Where it splits

• If you switch companies, tell the new company you have California LifeLine within 30 days of disconnecting the old service, and cancel the old service. After that you start over.
• If a wireless application is stuck with one company, call the Administrator and cancel it. An open wireless request blocks a new one with another company for up to 30 days.
• If the person whose program qualified your household leaves it or moves out, remove yourself from LifeLine and reapply on your own eligibility.

Denied or billed full price: your leverage

The CPUC's Consumer Affairs Branch handles LifeLine appeals and billing complaints at 1-800-649-7570, option 3. Your written appeal must arrive by the due date on your disqualification letter, 15 calendar days after the letter date, with a copy of that letter, a reason of two pages or less and proof you qualify. Send it online, by fax to 1-415-703-1158, or by mail to California Public Utilities Commission, Consumer Affairs Branch, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102-3298. If the company keeps billing regular rates after approval, file a billing complaint with the same branch.

Appeal wording:

"I appeal my California LifeLine disqualification dated [date]. Name, name on the phone bill, address and phone: [details]. The letter gives the reason as [reason]. I qualify because [I receive CalFresh / my household of (size) earns $(amount) a year]. Attached: the disqualification letter and [proof]."

What happened to ACP

The Affordable Connectivity Program paid up to $30 a month toward internet, or $75 on Tribal lands. It froze sign-ups on February 8, 2024, paid its last full month in April 2024 and ended on June 1, 2024, when Congress added no more funding. Report any website still taking ACP sign-ups at fcc.gov/complaints.

Today

1. Find a LifeLine company in the Provider Search and call it with your program or income.
2. If you qualify federally, ask the same company to file your federal Lifeline application too, or apply at LifelineSupport.org.
3. Copy your ID and your benefit letter or pay stubs.

Next comes the Administrator's form. Return it within 45 days; the approval letter starts your discount, and your first renewal form comes a year later.