CalFresh Emergency Allotment missing for 4 months - any special number to call?

The emergency allotments from covid ended in April 2023... CalFresh hasn't been giving extra pandemic benefits for 2 years now. Your cousin is just getting her regular calculated benefit amount, which is normal.

Wait, seriously? She swore her worker told her there was still some kind of supplemental payment she qualified for. Maybe she misunderstood? Her benefits definitely dropped a lot compared to what she was getting before.

The previous commenter is correct - emergency allotments ended in 2023. What your cousin might be referring to is a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) increase that happened in October 2024, which raised benefit amounts slightly. Or she might qualify for a supplement if her income dropped recently. If her income decreased and she reported it, but her benefits weren't adjusted properly, that's a different issue entirely. She should specifically ask about income reporting and benefit calculation when she calls, not about emergency allotments.

Thank you for explaining that! I'll let her know. She did have a job change about 5 months ago and her hours got cut. She mentioned it to her worker but maybe they didn't process the change correctly?

Sooooo many people are confused about this!!! My mom kept thinking she would get extra $ too but its OVER. The regular amount is all you get now and it SUCKS because food prices are crazy. Did your cousin do her SAR7? If you miss that form they cut benefits too.

Ugh, I know - groceries are insane now! I'll ask her about the SAR7. I think she got something in the mail a while back but not sure if she turned it in on time.

Here's what your cousin should do:\n\n1) First, confirm she submitted her most recent SAR7 (Semi-Annual Report) and her annual recertification if that was due. Those are the most common reasons benefits get reduced.\n\n2) She should specifically ask her worker for a \

This is super helpful, thank you! I'll tell her to specifically ask for that benefit calculation breakdown. And I'll make sure she checks if she missed turning in any forms. Do you happen to know if there's a direct number for supervisors? Her county office (Alameda) is notoriously hard to reach.

Have you tried using Claimyr? I was in a similar situation trying to reach my county worker for WEEKS with no luck. Claimyr connected me to a real person at the CalFresh office in less than 20 minutes. You can see how it works in their demo video here: https://youtu.be/eZ19FHRETv8?si=_CXnXqNXbLl26WB8. Their website is claimyr.com. It saved me so much frustration and I finally got my issue resolved instead of playing phone tag for months.

No, I haven't heard of that! Does it work for every county in California? My cousin's been trying to call Alameda for ages.

Yes, it works for all California counties including Alameda. That's actually where I used it. So much better than waiting on hold for hours or getting disconnected.

omg the EXACT same thing happened to my sister!!! she thought she was supposed to get extra $$ too and kept calling about it. turns out she was confused between her CalWORKs and CalFresh. maybe check if your cousin gets both?

That's a good point! She does get both CalWorks and CalFresh. Maybe there was some change to her CalWorks benefits that she's confusing with CalFresh? I'll ask her about that too.

I had a similar issue and it was INFURIATING. Kept getting told different things by different workers. The system is BROKEN and they make it IMPOSSIBLE to get straight answers!!!! I ended up having to go IN PERSON to the county office and refuse to leave until someone helped me. Even then I got the runaround for HOURS before they fixed it. Not saying that's what your cousin should do but sometimes that's what it takes with these people. 😠

I hope it doesn't come to that! My cousin works during the day and can't really take time off to sit at the county office. But I'll let her know that's an option if nothing else works. Thanks for sharing your experience.

One additional thing your cousin should check - if she had a change in income (like reduced hours you mentioned), she should verify that she properly reported this using the

This is good advice - I didn't know about the IRT thing! My worker never explained that to me.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I'll tell her to look for that IRT number on her approval letter and see if her income drop qualifies. Really appreciate everyone's help figuring this out.