Missing CalWORKs payment on the 2nd - account shows $0 but case still active?

Omg the same thing just happened to me!!! I was supposed to get mine yesterday. My case shows active but no money. Did u recently report any income changes?

check if there's a hold on ur account. sometimes they put administrative holds if they think they overpaid you or if they need more verfications. happened to me before and i had to wait 3 weeks to get it fixed bc nobody would answer the phone

This typically happens for one of three reasons: 1. There could be an administrative hold on your account pending verification of something. Did you receive ANY notice in the mail in the past month? 2. There might have been a system glitch with EBT card deposits. This happened county-wide in February 2025 and was fixed within 48 hours. 3. You might have hit your Income Reporting Threshold (IRT) without realizing it, which can trigger immediate benefit reduction. You need to contact your eligibility worker directly. Don't just call the main CalWORKs line because they'll just tell you to wait for a callback that might take days. Ask specifically if there are any pending verification requests or holds on your case.

Sometimes this happens when the county has a question about your child support cooperation status too. Even if you're exempt from child support requirements, they sometimes put a hold if they think they need to review your exemption. You should definitely call your eligibility worker first thing tomorrow. Make sure you have your case number and ID ready. If they say there's a verification needed, ask them to email it to you so you can submit it right away rather than waiting for mail.

I had this EXACT PROBLEM last month! Turned out they suspended my benefits because they thought I missed a Welfare to Work appointment - which I never even received notification about!!! The system is completely broken and they don't care that people have rent and bills due. I called for THREE DAYS straight and got disconnected every time. Finally had to go physically to the office and wait 4 hours to speak to someone. They fixed it but I didn't get my money until the 15th. RIDICULOUS!!!!

I went through something similar in January and discovered it was because my annual redetermination was due even though I had completed my SAR7. The CalWORKs office never sent me the SAWS 2 redetermination paperwork, but they still expected me to complete it! When I couldn't get through on the phone for days, I tried Claimyr (claimyr.com) - it's a service that gets you through to a live person at the benefits office. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE. It saved me from having to go to the office with my kids. I got through to my worker that same day and they reinstated my benefits within 48 hours once I explained I never received the paperwork.

this happens all the time with calworks when theres a holiday sometimes or when the 1st falls on weekends. maybe wait till tomorrow? sometimes mine comes late but not usually a full day late tho

One other thing to check - log into BenefitsCal and go to "Documents" to see if there are any notices you might have missed in the mail. Sometimes they upload them there before they even arrive in your mailbox. Also look under "Tasks" to see if there's anything they've requested that you might have missed. If you absolutely cannot reach your worker by phone tomorrow, as a last resort you can upload a message to them through the BenefitsCal portal under "Contact Us" - just know that they might take 2-3 days to respond this way.

if u end up using that claimyr thing let us know if it works. i might need it someday too

I just wanted to check back - were you able to reach your worker and find out what happened with your benefits?

So glad you got it sorted out! System glitches are way too common with CalWORKs - happened to me twice last year. At least they're giving you the $25 supplement, that's something new they started doing when it's their fault. For anyone else reading this who has similar issues in the future, definitely keep calling until you get through because sometimes it really is just a technical problem on their end that gets fixed quickly once they know about it.