CalWORKs paid me less than my approved amount - what went wrong?

did u report any income on ur last SAR7? they reduce ur benefits based on income even if its under the IRT

This is definitely related to your new job income. When you report earnings on your SAR7, they apply something called the "income disregard" - they don't count the first $550 of your earnings, but then they subtract 50% of the remaining earnings from your grant amount. So with $840 income, they'd disregard $550, leaving $290. Then they'd take half of that ($145) off your grant. That should only reduce your benefits by $145 though, not by $352... something else might be going on here.

You need to check if they're counting any child support as income too. If the non-custodial parent is paying child support through the county, they automatically deduct that from your cash aid. Also check if they applied any overpayment recoupment - that's when they take money back if they think they paid you too much in previous months. You should have gotten a Notice of Action explaining the reduction though.

CALL YOUR WORKER IMMEDIATELY!!! Don't wait! If there's a mistake they need to fix it before rent is due. And if it's not a mistake, you need to know exactly why they cut your benefits so much. The county ALWAYS makes mistakes with calculations - I've had to fight them THREE TIMES this year alone for underpaying me. Document everything and ask for a detailed breakdown of how they calculated your new grant amount.

Try using Claimyr to reach your caseworker faster - it's the only thing that worked for me after trying for days to get through to my CalWORKs office. They get you through the phone system and have someone call you back when they reach a worker. I used their video demo (https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE) to figure out how it works. Just go to claimyr.com and they'll help you connect to your county office without waiting on hold forever. Seriously worth it when you need to get something fixed quickly.

also check if they stopped giving u money for one of ur kids maybe? sometime they remove a kid if their ssn dont verify or they think they not living with u

I had a similar issue last month where my payment dropped by almost $400. Turned out I had missed a Welfare to Work appointment and they sanctioned me, but I never received the notice about the appointment! Make sure to ask if you have any WTW sanctions applied to your case. They're supposed to send multiple notices before sanctioning you, but we all know how reliable their mail system is... 🙄

I see you mentioned you're going to call them. When you do, ask specifically for an "Income Computation Worksheet" - this is a form that shows exactly how they calculated your grant amount. Also request a hearing immediately if there's an error - you only have 90 days from the Notice of Action date to appeal. Let us know what you find out!

That overpayment recovery can be really brutal when you're not expecting it! Just FYI - you have the right to request a lower repayment amount if 10% is causing hardship. They can sometimes reduce it to 5% or even pause collections temporarily if you can show it's creating a financial emergency. Also make sure to keep all the paperwork they send you about the overpayment - if their math is wrong or they can't prove when/why it happened, you can dispute it. Good luck with everything!