The CalWORKs Maximum Aid Payment will increase by .3% effective October 1, 2024. The grant increase is funded by the Child Poverty and Family Supplemental Support Subaccount. Grant increases in future years will depend on the amount of funds in the Subaccount.
The grant increase applies to all CalWORKs cases. Counties must treat the grant increase as a mandatory mid-period action.
The California Department of Social Services will send an informing flyer to all CalWORKs recipients.
For children who have opted to receive child support instead of CalWORKs, counties must used updated charts to determine if that is still an option. Children can get child support instead of CalWORKs, when there are multiple children with different paying parents in the same Assistance Unit, and the child support received for the child is greater than the CalWORKs grant for that child. If the amount of child support received is no longer greater than the amount in the updated charts, the county cannot add the child to the grant until the next semi-annual report or annual recertification. However, in that situation, the parent/caretaker relative can ask to add the child to the CalWORKs grant mid-period. (ACL 24-55, August 8, 2024.)