Electronically stolen CalFresh benefits are currently replaced with federal funds. However, federal funding for this purpose expires on December 20, 2024. If Congress does not act, replacement for electronically stolen food benefits will be from state funds starting on December 21, 2024. Current policy about replacing electronically stolen CalFresh benefits will not change.
CalFresh recipients are, and will continue to be, eligible to receive up to two months of replacement food benefits for each countable replacement of electronic theft. A countable replacement is each overall sequence of electronic theft transactions reported by a recipient on the EBT 2259 form, regardless of the number of transactions involved.
All transactions that occur within 90 days and are listed on the same EBT 2259 form will be considered one countable replacement unless the county suspects, based on the information on the EBT 22259 form, that there were two series of thefts in the 90-day period. In that case, the county must contact the customer. Indicators that there are separate incidents of theft include thefts the occurred in different states, thefts that are across multiple months, and thefts in which there are weeks between the dates of the transactions. In these situations, households cannot be required to submit another EBT 2259 form. The county worker must document in the case record and inform the household why two countable replacements were issued.
A household cannot receive more than two instances of replacement benefits each federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30). (ACL 24-62, August 23, 2024 and ACL 24-62E, September 30, 2024.)