Families who fulfill certain qualifying requirements and have sufficiently low incomes are eligible for CalFresh, California’s equivalent of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
This pertains to:
- People who buy their food and cook their meals separately, whether they live alone or with others.
- This also holds true for those who live together and cook and buy food together. Parents who are married or unmarried and have children who are 21 years of age or younger.
- When living with their parents, adult children (22 years of age or older) are permitted to live apart from them as long as
- When they purchase and cook their meals independently of their parents.
- Mothers with children or single women residing in a shelter for battered women.
After submitting an application, food benefits can be available three business days later. You must present identification and fulfill all other CalFresh requirements in order to be eligible.
- The bare minimum of financial requirements is:
- having less than $100 available at the moment and making less than $150 each month
- Make sure your monthly income and available funds are less than the sum of your utilities and rent payments.
- If you are a seasonal farmworker or migrant, you currently have less than $100 accessible.
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Does losing my work have an impact on my CalFresh application?
You should definitely apply for CalFresh if you recently lost your job. In the event that you ceased getting paid for your job, the county in which you live will determine how much CalFresh you would get in the first month by adding up the past 30 days’ worth of payments you received.
The benefits you will continue to get, if you have any remaining income, will be determined by that amount rather than by the income you have stopped receiving. Any documentation of your revenue from the previous 30 days should be kept on hand.
This document can help with the CalFresh application process, but it is not required to show that you ceased getting paid. A letter from your employer outlining the reason for the work or payment suspension, a screenshot of a text message, or an email can serve as this documentation.
A letter outlining your reason for leaving your job, along with the date of your final day of employment, your signature, and the submission date, can also be provided.
You should select “yes” for employment status on your application and state in the case information that your income is now zero if you still have a job but have not been assigned working hours or paid.
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Can I get unemployment insurance and CalFresh assistance simultaneously?
As long as the amount of money you get as unemployment insurance stays within the maximum restrictions specified by CalFresh, the answer to the question “Can I receive CalFresh and unemployment benefits at the same time?” is yes.
In fact, they can assist you in determining whether the sums surpass the limits when you apply for CalFresh membership.
On the other hand, your unemployment benefits are unaffected if you apply for unemployment insurance while receiving CalFresh assistance.
Lastly, you are not required to disclose an ongoing unemployment insurance claim on your CalFresh application if you have not yet received your first payment.
On the other hand, it is advised that you get in touch with local county offices to let them know about the change and get guidance on what to do next if you are currently getting CalFresh and have started collecting unemployment insurance, or if the amount has changed.
