CalWORKs EBT card drained - finally got payment timeline after conflicting info from county

OMG the same thing happened to me last november!!!! nobody at the county agreed on how long it would take. first they said 3 days too, then 2 weeks, then a month. i was LIVID!!! they expect us to live off what exactly? i ended up having to borrow money from family to cover my rent and i'm still paying that back. did they at least tell you HOW your card got drained?

No! That's another thing that's driving me crazy. They just keep saying it's

This is actually a surprisingly good outcome - many counties are taking 8-12 weeks to replace stolen CalWORKs benefits right now. The different timelines you got are frustrating but fairly typical since the theft investigation process isn't standardized and different workers handle different parts of the claim. Smart move depositing into your bank account immediately.For anyone dealing with benefit theft: report it within 10 days, file a police report if possible (brings more attention to your case), and specifically ask for an \

wait you can get emergency $ while they investigate?? wish someone told me that when mine got stolen :

good thinking putting it in ur bank. thats what i always do the second mine hits. too many scammers out there

The inconsistent information about timeline is unfortunately very common with benefit theft cases. Each worker might be giving you information based on their experience with different cases, and theft investigations genuinely do vary in time depending on the specifics.If this happens to anyone else, here's what you should do immediately:1. Report the theft to EBT Customer Service AND your county office2. Ask for form \

Thanks for all this info. I didn't know about the CA 801 form or that I could ask for emergency replacement. Nobody mentioned any of that to me! And the EBT text alerts - are those available in every county? How do I sign up?

its because nobody at the county talks to eachother lol. i swear i get a different answer every time i call. i had my cash aid stolen twice last year and i never got any of it back. they kept saying i must have given my card to someone which is totall BS!!! the system is completly rigged against us and im so tired of it.

SAME!! They tried to blame me too! Like I would just give away money I need for my kids 🙄

I had a similar experience trying to get through to CalWORKs about stolen benefits earlier this year. Was getting disconnected constantly and when I finally got through, kept getting transferred with no resolution. A friend told me about this service called Claimyr that helped them get through to a CalWORKs worker without the wait. It basically holds your place in line and calls you back when a real person is on the line. Saved me hours of frustration! Their site is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwEOnce I actually got through to a supervisor, they were able to expedite my case. Still took 3 weeks, but better than the 8 weeks they initially quoted me.

Thanks for the tip about Claimyr. I'll check it out if I need to deal with them again. The automated phone system is the WORST.

this happns all the time now, my cousin had her whole card drained last month and they said she wouldnt get it back at all because she couldnt prove it wasnt her who took the money out. how r u supposed to prove that??

One important thing to know about CalWORKs benefit theft - the county has gotten stricter about replacements because of increased fraud. To improve your chances of getting benefits replaced:1. Always file a police report (even just online)2. Never share your PIN with anyone3. If you have transaction receipts showing you were somewhere else when the theft occurred, provide those4. Ask your worker to document all calls about your caseThe EBT text alerts aren't available in all counties yet, but you can call the EBT customer service number on the back of your card to see if they're available for you. They'll text you whenever a transaction is made so you can catch theft immediately.

but the problem is the theives are using skimmers to copy our cards so even if we do all this stuff they still blame us!!!!

ya i never leave money on my ebt more than a day cuz of this

@original poster - I'm glad you got your benefits replaced! Just a heads-up though - technically CalWORKs benefits are supposed to be used for the specified benefit period, and moving large amounts to a personal bank account could potentially be flagged in an audit. I understand completely why you did it given what happened, but just be aware that in rare cases, workers might question this practice during redetermination.For additional security, consider requesting a new EBT card with a different card number entirely. The old one might be compromised in a database somewhere.

Oh I didn't know that could be an issue. Thanks for the warning. I'll definitely request a new card altogether. Do you know if there's any way to block certain types of transactions? Like I never use my card at ATMs but that's where most thefts happen, right?