i had someting similar happen but it was only $400 not as bad as yours... my county worker told me theres a statewide EBT app now that lets you lock your card when your not using it which i didnt know about before. also always use the machines inside the store never the atm's outside their easier for scammers to mess with. sorry this happened to you its so awful!!!!

Just to follow up - make sure when you go to your county office tomorrow that you specifically request both: 1. AB 1784 benefit theft reimbursement claim 2. Expedited CalFresh benefits application (CF 285) Bring as much documentation as you can: ID, any income verification, rent/utility bills, and information about the theft (dates, police report if you filed one, case number from your fraud call, etc.). Having everything organized will speed up the process significantly. For immediate food assistance, many school districts also offer emergency meal programs for families with children, separate from regular free/reduced lunch programs. Worth checking with your children's schools as well.

when i got my kids cards i thought it was a scam lol. didnt even activate them for like 2 weeks until my sister told me it was legit. feels weird getting beneffits when we didnt apply for nothing but hey free food is free food

One more thing - make sure you set unique PINs for each card when you activate them. These are technically your children's benefits (even though you manage them as the parent). I've seen cases where parents set the same PIN for all cards and then had issues with account security later on. And keep track of which card belongs to which child - they look nearly identical!

Thanks everyone for clearing this up! Sounds like my neighbor definitely got confused between the regular COLA increase and something COVID-related. I'll let her know so she doesn't keep spreading incorrect info. Even a small increase will help though - groceries have gotten so expensive this year.

Good idea to correct the misinformation. And you're right - even small increases help with today's food prices. If your circumstances have changed significantly (income decrease, new household member, higher housing costs), you can always report those changes to potentially increase your benefits beyond just the COLA adjustment.

The P-EBT system IS pretty unfair. My sister gets CalFresh and her kids automatically got P-EBT cards with like $1,200 on them last year, while my kids who aren't on any benefits but still need food got nothing. And I'm paying the same taxes that fund these programs! I think they should either expand eligibility or create something for families just above the cutoff. There's so many working families struggling with food costs that get zero help.

try the calfresh again! i got denied then my friend told me to apply again and tell them about all my bills and i got approved the 2nd time. make sure u tell them EVERYTHING u pay for

Update: Just checked my EBT account this morning and the extra payment finally showed up! Got $71 extra. Seems like they're definitely rolling them out slowly over several days. Thanks everyone for confirming this was actually happening!

I finally got through to someone at the county after waiting 1.5 hours on hold! They told me I didn't get the extra payment because we're already receiving the maximum benefit amount for our household size due to our very low income. So apparently if you're already at the max, you don't get the inflation adjustment. Just wanted to update in case anyone else was confused like me.