CalWORKs identity theft - someone claiming my benefits for months without my knowledge! Help?

This happened to me last year! You need to do three things IMMEDIATELY: 1. File a police report for identity theft and get a copy of the report number 2. Contact your county's Welfare Fraud Prevention office directly (not through the regular CalWORKs line) 3. Request an "expedited identity theft resolution" - this is a special process they have Once you have the police report number, call your worker back and tell them you need an "immediate need" payment while this is being investigated. By law, they have to process emergency aid within 3 business days if you have children and no income. Don't let them tell you otherwise! Also ask for an administrative hearing ASAP. I got my benefits reinstated in about 2 weeks after following these steps, but they initially told me it would take 90 days. Be persistent!

omg this EXACT THING just happened to my cousin!! her caseworker was NO help at all just kept saying she had to wait for fraud dept. she ended up having to go to her assembly persons office to get help after like 6 weeks of getting nowhere. they fixed it in like 3 days after that. maybe try that if ur county keeps giving u the runaround

I'd also recommend checking if your other benefits were compromised. Often when someone steals CalWORKs info, they also try to access CalFresh and Medi-Cal. Check your BenefitsCal account carefully for any services you didn't apply for or changes you didn't make. For the immediate situation, you can request a "shelter crisis" emergency payment if you're at risk of losing housing while this gets sorted out. You'll need to bring: - Eviction notice or past due rent statement - ID for everyone in household - Birth certificates for your kids - Proof of your recent job loss (termination letter) They can issue emergency funds even with a pending fraud investigation if you have minor children at risk of homelessness. Just be prepared to provide a ton of verification documents.

I'd like to share something that saved me countless hours when dealing with a similar issue with my CalWORKs case last year. I was calling for WEEKS and could never get through - either busy signals or disconnected after waiting for hours. I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me actually reach a live person at the county office. They have this system that holds your place in line and calls you when a caseworker picks up. Saved me SO much frustration! They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE Identity theft cases need immediate attention and you really need to speak to a supervisor, not just any worker. With regular calling methods, I was getting nowhere for 3 weeks straight.

THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT IDENTITY THEFT!! I went through this exact scenario in 2024 and it took FIVE MONTHS to resolve!!! Their "fraud investigators" are a joke and they treat YOU like the criminal!! Even with police reports they kept telling me "we have to complete our investigation" while my family went without benefits we desperately needed. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING! Record names, ID numbers of every single person you talk to. Send everything via certified mail so they can't claim they "never received" your documents (they pulled this on me TWICE). And DEMAND to speak to a supervisor every single time. The regular workers have ZERO authority to help with identity theft cases but they won't tell you that upfront!!

On top of the great advice already shared, make sure you also protect yourself from future identity theft with CalWORKs: 1. Set up two-factor authentication on your BenefitsCal account immediately 2. Create a new security PIN and change ALL your passwords 3. Put a verbal password on your case that must be given before any changes can be made (many don't know this option exists!) 4. Opt out of electronic notifications and request paper mail only 5. Request "identity verification required" to be added as a flag on your account Also - and this is VERY important - file form CW 2218 (Request for Order and Notice of Hearing) and mark it as "expedited hearing." This legally forces them to address your case within 10 days. Many workers don't volunteer this information because expedited hearings create more work for them.

can u check ur EBT card transaction history?? that might show where the person was using the card which could help track them down. just a thought.

One more thing I forgot to mention - make sure you're clear with the county that you need both the identity theft resolved AND immediate aid. These are two separate issues, and sometimes workers conflate them. The fraud investigation can proceed on its own timeline, but they can't deny you emergency benefits if you qualify right now based on your current situation. Request what's called a "presumptive eligibility determination" - this is when they approve you for benefits based on the assumption that you'll be determined eligible once the investigation concludes. If you have kids and no income, you should qualify. They'll likely issue one month of aid while continuing to investigate. Did you apply for regular Unemployment Insurance too? That won't affect your CalWORKs eligibility, and you should be able to receive both since you were working before losing your job.