Can you get SNAP and unemployment at the same time? California EDD question

CalFresh and unemployment running at the same time — yes, it's possible and pretty common actually. Your unemployment payments count as income when the county looks at your CalFresh case, so they'll factor in that $387 a week when deciding how much food assistance you qualify for. But getting CalFresh won't touch your EDD claim at all, those two programs don't talk to each other in a way that would affect your UI eligibility. Apply through BenefitsCal or call 1-877-847-3663 and let the county worker know you're on unemployment. They'll work out the numbers from there.

Applied for CalFresh about three weeks into my unemployment last year and they approved me. The county worker asked what my weekly UI amount was and used that as my income. Ended up getting around $180 a month in CalFresh, which honestly helped a lot with groceries. The EDD claim kept going without any issue at all.

My DE 429Z showed $312 a week when my claim started back in the spring, and I had the same question about CalFresh. Getting anyone at EDD on the phone to ask about it felt impossible at first. Used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through the hold line and ended up talking to a live EDD agent. Asked specifically whether applying for CalFresh would create any eligibility issue with my UI claim. The agent pulled up my claim and confirmed there's no conflict between the two programs from EDD's side — CalFresh is administered by the county, not EDD, so it doesn't affect UI eligibility at all. Here's the video they have about reaching a live person at EDD: https://youtu.be/JmuwXR7HA10. After that call I went ahead and applied for CalFresh right away.

Week five of my current EDD claim and I'm also navigating the CalFresh question. One thing I want to flag though — I've seen people say that unemployment benefits don't count as income for food stamps and that is NOT true for California. The county absolutely counts your weekly UI payment as income when they calculate your CalFresh benefit. You still might qualify, your payment might just be smaller than if you had no income at all.

Something I wish I'd known earlier in my claim — you can apply for CalFresh, Medi-Cal, and CalWORKs all in one place through BenefitsCal. When I was laid off in the fall I didn't know that and I applied for them separately which was such a waste of time. If you're already dealing with EDD paperwork, at least streamline the CalFresh side.

My certification is current and my EDD payments are coming in but I'm also curious now about Medi-Cal. If your income is low enough on unemployment does Medi-Cal become available? Or is that only for people with no income at all? I lost my employer health coverage when I got laid off so this would be huge.

Pending weeks in my UI Online Claim History have been stressing me out for two weeks now and reading this thread is at least making me feel less alone. Still haven't gotten my CalFresh question sorted because I wanted to understand my EDD situation first. Do people generally wait until their claim is fully active before applying for CalFresh or should I just do both at the same time?

CalJOBS registration is what tripped me up at first with my claim — got the DE 8405 notice and almost missed the 21-day window to register and post a resume. If you're new to EDD make sure you check your mail carefully because that requirement can sneak up on you and missing it can pause payments.

My first week of unemployment I was so confused about what counted as income I reported my severance as wages during certification and then panicked that I'd done it wrong. Had to contact EDD through UI Online message to clarify. For what it's worth — EDD does ask you to report severance when you certify, and they sort out how it's treated on their end. Doesn't automatically disqualify you from UI.

Letter from my county came pretty fast after I applied for CalFresh — maybe ten days. They want an interview and a few documents including proof of income. The UI award notice and a bank statement covering recent transactions is usually enough. The interview itself is short, maybe 20 minutes by phone.

My claim year is almost up and I've been getting CalFresh the entire time. The county does periodic renewals — I think every six months or year depending on your case — where they reassess your income. As long as your UI income stays in the qualifying range you stay on CalFresh. If you go back to work and your income goes up, you'd report that change to the county.

My EDD phone interview is coming up next week because I left my last job — not quite a straight layoff situation. I keep second-guessing myself about what to say. Reading through this thread is a bit of a detour but honestly I needed to hear that programs like CalFresh exist as a backup because I genuinely don't know how my interview is going to go.

UI Online showed Pending on three weeks before things got resolved on my claim. At the time I was asking everyone whether pending meant denied and nobody was giving me a straight answer. It doesn't mean denied — it means EDD hasn't processed eligibility for those weeks yet. Eventually those weeks either get paid or EDD mails a Notice of Determination explaining why they didn't.

My cousin told me unemployment payments don't count for food stamps because they're not "real wages" and I almost didn't apply because of that. That's completely wrong. Unemployment benefits are absolutely counted as income by CalFresh. Please do not let bad advice like that stop you from applying — let the county worker tell you what you qualify for.

About four months into my current claim and still applying for jobs every week like I'm supposed to. Keep a running list of where I applied just out of habit — not sure if EDD ever actually asks for it but it makes me feel less anxious about the whole thing. Also CalFresh has honestly been a lifeline and I'd encourage anyone who's hesitating to just apply.

My situation was a little different — I was also getting a small pension from an old job while collecting UI, and I wasn't sure if that would affect my CalFresh case too. I ended up calling EDD about the pension impact on UI and used Claimyr to actually get a live agent. Asked about how the pension would be counted and the agent told me EDD handles the pension calculation on their end and I'd see the effect in my weekly payment amount. Went ahead and reported the pension to the county for CalFresh purposes as well and they factored it in separately.

Applied for CalFresh the same week I filed my EDD claim and got approved within two weeks. If you're waiting to apply because you think unemployment disqualifies you, it doesn't — your county just counts UI as part of your income and calculates your benefit from there. Some months I got less than others when my part-time wages got reported, but I stayed on CalFresh the whole time.

My Notice of Determination came about three weeks after my phone interview — took forever — and EDD approved my claim. Immediately went to BenefitsCal to start the CalFresh application. Timing-wise, I'd say don't wait for EDD to fully resolve before you apply for CalFresh. The processes are separate enough that you can run them in parallel.

EDD's site actually has a list of other programs they point people toward including CalFresh, Medi-Cal, Covered California and COBRA for health coverage. I stumbled on it while looking for something else and was surprised EDD was that upfront about resources. If you're just on unemployment and not sure where else to look, that list on edd.ca.gov is a decent starting point.

My claim started in September and I want to clear up something I keep seeing — federal taxes apply to UI benefits, but California state income tax does not. So your CalFresh worker isn't going to see a state tax deduction eating into your UI income. The gross weekly amount is what gets reported for CalFresh purposes. And if you want to avoid a big federal tax bill in April, you can elect 10 percent federal withholding when you certify.

Overpayment is what keeps me careful about reporting everything accurately to both EDD and the county. My work situation this claim is a bit messy — a few weeks of part-time, then full-time, then nothing. I report every single change to both programs and document it. Getting an overpayment notice from EDD or the county is not a situation I want to deal with on top of job searching.

My pending weeks question was what brought me to Claimyr — four certifications in Claim History showed Pending with no explanation from EDD. Ended up talking to an agent after using the service. The agent confirmed two of those weeks were pending because of an identity verification step that hadn't been completed. Got that handled and three of the four weeks were processed within a few days after.

Coming back to update — applied for CalFresh through BenefitsCal on Wednesday and have a county phone interview scheduled for next week. The agent told me to bring documentation of my weekly UI amount which I have from my DE 429Z. Really grateful for all the information in this thread. Also going to look into Medi-Cal since I lost my employer health coverage and the EDD resource list someone mentioned. Will update after the CalFresh interview.