quick tip: if you download the connectebt app you can check all your card balances there instead of having to call. that's how i noticed the benefits got added

Wait I'm confused... is P-EBT the same as CalFresh? My family gets CalFresh but I haven't heard anything about P-EBT. My kids are in middle school in San Leandro.

u should know that if they do decide its an overpayment u can setup a payment plan for like $10/month which is way better than losing benefits. also u can ask for a 'compromise' sometimes where they reduce what u owe if u can prove financial hardship. i had a $780 overpayment reduced to $390 after i showed them my bills and low income.

I'm a benefits advocate and see cases like this regularly. The good news is that for a first-time reporting error involving a gift, they rarely impose an IPV (Intentional Program Violation). Here's what you should do immediately: 1. Document everything - get a written statement from your uncle confirming it was a birthday gift 2. When you finally reach your worker, emphasize that you genuinely didn't know gifts over $1000 needed to be reported 3. Ask them to classify this as an Inadvertent Household Error (IHE) rather than an IPV 4. Be prepared that they may recalculate your benefits for the months since you received the gift The overpayment calculation isn't based on the full $1500 - they'll figure out how much less you should have received if you'd reported it correctly. For a household of 3, a $1500 lump sum might have reduced your monthly benefits by $50-100, so the overpayment could be much less than you're fearing. Stay calm and be honest - this happens more often than you think, and most counties are understanding about genuine mistakes.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone after finally reaching someone. They're experiencing a statewide system issue affecting benefit loading for certain cases processed between the 25th-30th last month. The worker said benefits should appear within 24-48 hours without further action needed. If anyone else is having this problem, apparently it's affecting thousands of people right now.

This is such a relief to hear about the system issue! I was starting to panic thinking something was wrong with my case. For anyone still waiting on hold, you might want to hang up and just wait the 24-48 hours since it sounds like they can't manually fix it anyway. I'm going to set a reminder to check my balance tomorrow morning. Thanks everyone for the support and tips - this community is honestly a lifesaver when dealing with these CalFresh nightmares! 🙏

I don't know if this helps, but back when I was on CalWorks (2024), I had trouble with rent and found out that Catholic Charities has an emergency rental assistance program that processes WAY faster than the county. They helped me within 48 hours. Might be worth checking if they operate in San Joaquin.

Another thing to consider - if you're still having trouble getting through to your caseworker, you can also contact the San Joaquin County CalWorks Fraud Hotline at (209) 468-3834. I know it sounds weird but they can sometimes transfer you to a supervisor who can expedite emergency situations. I had to do this once when my worker went on vacation and no one else would help me with an urgent issue. Also, if you have any documentation about your attempts to contact your caseworker (like timestamps of calls or emails), bring those with you tomorrow. Shows you've been trying to work within the system and might help your case for emergency assistance.

Hi! I went through the same thing but I eventually got my account fixed by calling the general CalFresh hotline (not the county-specific one) at 1-877-847-3663. They connected me to someone who could help reset everything. For benefits, I'm a single mom with 2 kids and we get $720 in CalFresh and $960 in CalWORKs. Our household income is about $2100/month with part-time work. Hope that helps give you an idea!

is anyone else annoyed that they keep changing the benefit amounts but not telling anyone?? like why cant they just send a text or something