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Our elementary school sent home a flyer about this last week. The Jan-May 2023 P-EBT is scheduled for distribution in March-April 2025, and benefits will be loaded onto existing 3.0 cards. For anyone who lost their card, you can request a replacement at 877-328-9677. Just a heads up - the replacement takes 7-10 business days, so if you need a new card, request it now before the benefits are loaded. Hope this helps!
Your school actually sent home information?! That's amazing. Our district never communicates anything about P-EBT. Thanks for sharing this info - I still have our cards but this is good for anyone who needs replacements.
wait so this is different from calfresh right? i get regular ebt but my kids still got pebt cards during covid. will they still get this benefit even tho our income went up and we dont get calfresh anymore?
Yes, P-EBT is completely separate from CalFresh. P-EBT eligibility is based on whether your children qualified for free or reduced-price school meals during the specific time period (in this case, January-May 2023). If your kids were eligible during that period, they'll receive the benefit regardless of your current income or CalFresh status. The eligibility was determined based on your situation in 2023, not now.
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UPDATE for everyone: I just checked with a colleague at the CalFresh office. The emergency allotments for April are indeed scheduled for the 17th for most counties. If you're in Sacramento County (as the OP mentioned), yours will definitely be tomorrow, not today. Also worth noting - this is likely one of the last few months for emergency allotments as the program is scheduled to phase out in August 2025. Make sure to report any income changes accurately on your SAR7 and recertification to maintain your regular benefits when that happens.
Wait WHAT?? The emergency allotments are ending in August?? That's going to cut my benefits by over $300! Is there anything we can do about this or is it definitely happening? With food prices still so high this is going to be devastating for my family.
Unfortunately it's a federal program sunset, so it will affect all states. The best preparation is to make sure your household has all eligible deductions properly reported (childcare expenses, excess medical costs for seniors/disabled, high housing costs). These can significantly increase your base benefit amount. Also consider applying for other programs like LIHEAP for utility assistance to free up more of your budget for food.
Just saw that my emergency allotment was deposited about 30 minutes ago (8:45pm on the 16th), though I'm in one of those early counties mentioned above. For most people, I'd expect to see it tomorrow. The system often loads benefits in batches throughout the day based on case numbers. One important tip - if your regular benefit amount changed after recertification, make sure that's properly reflected before the emergency allotment hits. If there was a calculation error on your regular benefit, it could affect your supplement amount too. Double-check your Notice of Action letter to confirm your regular benefit calculation looks correct.
Just checked again and still nothing for me. I'll wait until tomorrow as everyone suggested. My Notice of Action shows the $16 calculation based on our income, which seems right since we're just barely under the limit now. Thanks everyone for your help - I was really stressing out today!
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$70 actually sounds high for that income level tbh. My husband makes about $3300 and we only get $42 for our family of 3 🙃 It's basically pointless but I keep it anyway because every bit helps I guess
This is why the system is so broken! The difference between $3300 and $3800 shouldn't be so drastic in benefits when we're all struggling. And these benefit amounts haven't kept up with inflation at ALL. $42-70 for a whole month is nothing with today's grocery prices.
After reading through the comments, it sounds like you have several action items: 1. Call your county worker to report your medical expenses (both yours and potentially your baby's) 2. Clarify how your boyfriend's overtime is being calculated 3. Make sure all your housing costs are properly documented 4. Continue with your WIC application for additional support When reporting medical expenses, bring documentation if possible. This includes receipts for: - Doctor visit copays - Prescription costs - Medical transportation expenses - Health insurance premiums you pay out of pocket - Medical equipment or supplies All of these can count toward your medical expense deduction if they exceed $35/month. With your HHT condition, I suspect your actual benefit could be considerably higher once everything is properly documented.
Thank you for this clear list! I have receipts for almost everything, so I'll gather those up before I call. I'm feeling much more hopeful now that I might be able to get our benefits adjusted to something more helpful. I had no idea medical transportation counted too - I drive 45 minutes each way to see my specialist!
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Does anyone know if we qualify for PEBT if we get CALFRESH already???????? My kids school says they get free lunch becuz of some comunity thing not becuz of our income so im confused if they get the PEBT too??
Yes, you can qualify for both CalFresh and P-EBT - they're separate programs. If your children's school participates in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) where all students get free meals regardless of income, then your children should automatically qualify for P-EBT benefits! That's actually good news because you don't have to submit any additional paperwork. The school should have already submitted the necessary information to the state.
Something to keep in mind is that the P-EBT program's existence depends on federal funding and approvals. The current program was authorized through the end of the 2025-26 school year, but there's always the possibility of changes. What I've found helpful is signing up for email/text alerts from the California Department of Social Services website so you get notified about these benefits directly rather than relying on schools (which often have outdated or incomplete information).
That's a really good idea about signing up for alerts directly. Do you happen to have the link for that? I've looked around the CDSS website before and got lost in all the different pages.
Here you go: https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/cdss-programs/calworks/subscriber. This page lets you sign up for alerts about various programs including P-EBT. Just make sure you check the boxes for all the programs you want updates about. Hope this helps!
Anastasia Kozlov
oh also they mite get rlly small benefits if they get SSI. my grandpa only got like $27 a month on EBT cuz his SSI was too high or somethin. still worth it tho
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Diego Flores
•Quick correction - SSI (Supplemental Security Income) recipients in California aren't eligible for CalFresh at all because California includes a nutrition benefit in the SSI payment itself. However, if they're receiving Social Security retirement benefits (not SSI), then they can absolutely receive CalFresh. The minimum benefit for a qualifying household is $23 in 2025, but many seniors receive more, especially after medical expense deductions are applied.
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Chloe Robinson
Update: Thanks everyone for your help! We ended up going to BenefitsCal.com and started the application together. We got about halfway through but then realized we needed more documentation than we had on hand (they couldn't find their most recent Social Security award letters). Going to finish it tomorrow after gathering everything. The website was actually pretty user-friendly! I'm helping them navigate it, but the questions are straightforward. Much better than I expected. Will update again once we finish the process in case it helps others with elderly family members.
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Sean Flanagan
•Good luck!! hope they get approved quick! let us know how the phone interview goes, thats the part my dad struggled with most
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