Lifeline Program

The Lifeline Program is a federal program that provides a monthly benefit on home or wireless phone and broadband internet service to eligible households. The Lifeline benefit can lower the cost of your monthly phone or internet bill. Only one benefit is available per household;* either phone service (home or wireless) or internet (home or mobile), but not both.

*NOTE: A “Household” is defined as any individual or group of individuals who are living together at the same address as one economic unit. An “economic unit” consists of all adult individuals contributing to and sharing in the income and expenses of a household.

Eligibility Requirements
You may be eligible for a Lifeline Program benefit if your income is at or below 135 percent of the Federal Poverty Guideline OR if someone in your household participates in one of these federal programs:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps
• Medicaid
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Federal Public Housing Assistance (FPHA) or Section 8
• Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit

For more information on eligible programs and acceptable forms of documentation, please visit the Verify Subscriber Eligibility page.

Being a Lifeline customer does not protect from disconnection if the participant fails to pay his or her bill.

Applying for Lifeline

Follow this link to apply for Lifeline.

You are only allowed to get one Lifeline benefit per household, not per person. Use the following Household Worksheet if someone else at your address gets Lifeline. The answers to the questions in the worksheet will help you find out if there is more than one household at your address.

Household Worksheet

Information on the Lifeline provided by the State of Iowa may be found here. National information on the program may be found here.