Effective October 1, 2021, Assembly Bill (AB) 135 grants a 5.3 percent increase to the CalWORKs Maximum Aid Payment (MAP). Recipients must be informed of the MAP increase by October 1st. The country welfare department computer systems must have the MAP increase programmed into their system by October 1st, and if not, they must manually issue the benefits increase.
Under SB 380, children who receive child support in an amount more than the CalWORKs grant can opt-out of the CalWORKs case. For some of these cases, the increase in the MAP will increase the CalWORKs payment to more than the child support paid. In those cases, the family can ask to add the child to the CalWORKs case mid-period. If the family does not ask for that mid-period change, the child will be added to the case at their following semi-annual report or annual recertification. (ACL 21-87, August 18, 2021.)