Does CalWORKs count my teenage daughter's part-time job income against our eligibility?

depends how old ur daughter is. if shes under 18 AND in school, her income should be EXEMPT. my son works at in-n-out and they dont count it on our cash aid. but u have to tell them she's a student when u report the income on ur SAR7!!

The previous commenter is correct, but let me clarify the exact rule: CalWORKs exempts earned income for children under 18 who are full-time students. This is different from CalFresh rules, which might be causing your confusion. Your worker should have explained this better! You should still report her income on your Semi-Annual Report (SAR7), but mark it as exempt student income. If the worker incorrectly counts it, request a case review immediately. The law is very clear on this - her income should NOT affect your cash aid eligibility or amount as long as she remains a full-time student.

To answer the question about summer break - yes, the exemption typically applies during summer vacation too, as long as the child is considered enrolled and planning to return to school in the fall. The student exemption generally applies during regular school vacations (winter/spring/summer breaks).

I had this exact same issue last month! Could NOT reach anyone at the CalWORKs office to fix it. After getting hung up on 8 times, I used Claimyr.com to get through to a real person at my county office. They connected me in about 15 minutes when I had been trying for days on my own. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE Once I finally got through, I explained that my daughter was a full-time student and they corrected her income to be exempt. They had to adjust our benefits retroactively because they had incorrectly reduced our cash aid for 2 months.

Everyone is saying different things but I'm pretty sure there's an income limit even for students!! My nephew worked too many hours one summer and they cut our bennifits. I think there's a maximum they can earn before it starts counting??

The system is DESIGNED to be confusing!!! They WANT you to make mistakes so they can kick you off. I had a similar issue and even showed them the regulation about student income being exempt and they STILL counted it wrong. Had to file for a fair hearing before they fixed it. Always get EVERYTHING in writing and keep copies of EVERYTHING you submit!!!

Thank you all for the help! I called my worker this morning and specifically mentioned that my daughter is a full-time high school student and her income should be exempt. She checked something in the system and confirmed you're all right - it won't count against our eligibility! Such a relief. Now I just need to make sure it's documented correctly on the SAR7 when we get it.

So glad to hear you got it resolved! This is such a common issue and it's frustrating how many workers don't seem to know the student exemption rules. For anyone else reading this - definitely keep pushing if your worker tries to count your high school student's income. The regulation is clear that earned income for full-time students under 18 is completely exempt from CalWORKs calculations. Don't let them intimidate you into accepting wrong information!