Is CalFresh taking money back from EBT cards? Heard rumors about benefit reductions

They can't just randomly take money off your EBT card without notifying you. However, if you have an overpayment situation (where they gave you more benefits than you were eligible for in the past), they can reduce your current benefits to recoup that money - but they are required to send you a Notice of Action before doing this. Check your mail from the last month - you should have received something explaining any reductions.

I've been checking through all my mail and can't find anything about reductions or overpayments. Is there a way to find out if this is what's happening to me? I've tried calling the county office but just get the automated system and it hangs up after 20 minutes on hold.

THEY ARE DEFINETLY TAKING MONEY BACK!! this new administration is cutting all benefits secretly. my cousin works for the welfare office and said they got orders to reduce everyone's benefits by at least 15% starting in june 2025. they don't want the public to know until its too late!!!!

I think what you might be experiencing is the end of the emergency allotments that happened a while back. Everyone used to get the maximum benefit amount during COVID, but that ended. Could that be what your neighbor was referring to? That wasn't really "taking back" money, but benefits did go down for many households.

Another thing to check is whether you recently reported an income change or if someone in your household changed. Even small income increases can affect your benefit amount. Also, if you didn't complete your Semi-Annual Report (SAR7) on time, they might have reduced your benefits. I'd recommend logging into your BenefitsCal account to check your case status and see if there are any notices posted there that explain the change.

You're exactly right. In California, you're only required to report income changes mid-period if your total household income exceeds the Income Reporting Threshold (IRT) listed on your last approval notice. A small raise that doesn't put you over the IRT can wait until your next SAR7. However, if the county somehow found out about your raise (sometimes employers report new wages to systems that the county can access), they might have adjusted your benefits. But they still should have sent you a notice explaining this change. I strongly recommend contacting your eligibility worker to get clarity on why your benefits changed.

my friend said they take money back if u buy non-food items with the card but thats not even possible lol the card wont work for anything except food

Update: I finally got through to my eligibility worker! Turns out there was a calculation error on their end. My benefits should NOT have been reduced, and they're going to issue the difference back to me within 10 days. The worker said they've been having system issues this month that have affected several cases. So no, the government isn't randomly taking money back from our EBT cards! If anyone else notices unexpected changes to their benefits, definitely call to check what's going on.

That's such great news that you got it resolved! Thanks for updating us - it's really helpful to know that system errors can cause these kinds of issues. I'm dealing with something similar right now where my benefits seem off, so I'm definitely going to call my worker tomorrow. Did you end up using that Claimyr service someone mentioned, or were you able to get through the regular way?