Did CalFresh COVID emergency allotments return for September 2025? October deposit question

I work with a community resource center, and I can confidently say there are NO plans to bring back COVID emergency allotments for CalFresh. Those ended permanently in April 2023. What your neighbor might be referring to is the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that typically happens in October. CalFresh benefits usually see a small increase each year to account for inflation, but this is standard and not related to COVID at all.

Oh, that makes sense. Maybe she misunderstood what was happening. Do you know roughly how much the COLA increase might be? Every little bit helps these days.

its def not covid stuff coming back lol. my caseworker told me last week that all those emergency things ended ages ago. but ya ur october deposit should be a tiny bit more than before cuz of the yearly adjustment thing

Yep exactly this! The COLA is usually announced in late summer and kicks in with the October issuance. Last year it was like a 3% increase I think? Not a huge amount but better than nothing!

I've been on CalFresh for 6 years now and every single year there's rumors about \

I appreciate the reality check. Definitely wasn't trying to spread false hope - just repeating what I heard and asking if it was true. Sounds like it wasn't. And yeah, $10-20 is a lot less than I was hoping for, but I'll take what I can get.

I actually just called my county office yesterday to check on something else and asked about this COLA increase while I had them on the phone. The worker confirmed that yes, there will be a standard cost-of-living adjustment for October (for September benefits). They said the exact amount hasn't been finalized yet but it's expected to be around 2.8% this year. \n\nBTW if anyone needs to talk to their CalFresh worker and can't get through, I've been using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to skip the phone wait. They have this service where they wait on hold for you and call you back when a real person picks up. Saved me literally 2+ hours of hold time. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/eZ19FHRETv8?si=_CXnXqNXbLl26WB8

Thanks for sharing the specifics! 2.8% isn't huge but at least it's something. The USDA typically announces the final COLA percentage in late August, so we should know the exact amount soon.

my sister in Pasadena said she got a mailer about some increase but she thouth it was just for her county but maybe its the COLA thing you guys are talking about? she has 3 kids and gets like $975/month i think

CalFresh is a federal program administered by counties, but the benefit amounts and COLA are standardized across all of California. The mailer your sister received was most likely about the upcoming annual COLA adjustment. Counties often send notices about this in August/September. The adjustment applies to everyone on CalFresh, not just specific counties.

Just to clarify for everyone - the official name of what's happening is the

Thanks for the detailed info! I hadn't heard of the \

wait I just remembered someting...i think last year they also sent out a one-time extra payment in novemeber or something?? does anyone remember that? Maybe thats what ur neighbor meant?

No, that was a completely different program from the state government, not CalFresh. It was called the \

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.