Skipped CalWORKs recertification this month - should I be worried?

maybe your worket quit and they forgot about u lol. take the money and run!!! jk but srsly the county makes mistakes ALL THE TIME. ur smart to check now instead of waiting for them to cut u off with no notice

This actually happens sometimes. There are a few possibilities: 1. Your recertification period might have been extended due to an administrative change or a pandemic-related waiver that's still in effect for your case. 2. Your worker may have marked your case for 'auto-recertification' based on certain stability factors (consistent income reporting, no household changes, etc.) 3. There could be a system error where your case wasn't flagged for recertification. I would definitely call your worker to confirm. If you don't get your recertification done when it's actually due, they could discontinue your benefits without warning and you'd have to reapply from scratch. Better to be proactive!

In my experience, sometimes they do "targeted" recertifications where they only make certain households do the full recert process. If your income has been stable and you've been submitting your SAR7s on time, they might have put you on a different schedule. You should definitely call to check though - the system is so inconsistent between counties and even between workers in the same office!

Had same thing happen last year!! I was all stressed waiting for my recert packet and then my benefits just continued. I called my worker and she said because I had been submitting my SAR7s on time and had no changes to report, they decided to do an "administrative renewal" where they just verify your info through their systems instead of making you do the whole packet and interview. But def call to make sure that's what happened in your case!

I spent FIVE HOURS trying to get through to my CalWORKs worker last week about this exact same issue! Kept getting disconnected or stuck in that stupid automated system. Finally I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to a real person in like 20 mins. They have this video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/jzISHxCPLwE Anyway turns out they had my recert date wrong in the system and I was actually supposed to recertify 2 months ago! They let me do an emergency recert over the phone instead of cutting me off. Def worth checking on this!

All this stuff about "administrative renewals" and "targeted recerts" is completely WRONG!!! Look, I've been on CalWORKs for 7 years and EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD must do annual recertification - it's FEDERAL LAW under TANF rules!!! What's happening is your case is falling through the cracks. Your worker probably quit (50% turnover rate in my county) and your case got lost. CALL THEM NOW and document EVERYTHING because when they realize their mistake they will try to say you didn't cooperate and demand all the money back!!!

Did you recently start working or report a change in income on your SAR7? Sometimes when your income goes up and they recalculate your benefits, the system treats that as a mid-year reassessment and it can reset your annual recertification date. This happened to me last year and my recert got pushed back by like 4 months.

Based on your comment about recently starting work, that's likely what happened. When you report a significant change on your SAR7 that requires recalculating your benefits, many counties will conduct what's called a "partial redetermination" that can reset your annual recertification timeline. Still, I strongly recommend calling your county office to confirm. You can also check your most recent Notice of Action letter - it should have information about your certification period at the bottom. If you can't reach your worker after multiple attempts, consider contacting the CalWORKs ombudsperson for your county or ask to speak with a supervisor.

That's great news that you found the Notice of Action with the updated certification period! It sounds like your partial redetermination when you started working did reset your timeline. Just wanted to add - when you do call tomorrow to confirm, it might be helpful to have that Notice of Action handy with the new certification date. Sometimes the workers have outdated info in their system and having that document can help clarify things quickly. Also, congrats on getting the part-time job! It's always nerve-wracking when you start working while on CalWORKs because you're not sure how it'll affect everything, but it sounds like you handled the reporting correctly.