Eligibility

CalWORKs gives money and assistance to eligible families. To be eligible, a family must meet rules about need, income, and resources. It’s important to note that these rules are different from Social Security rules. CalWORKs uses the term “assistance unit (AU)” instead of family. Some members of your family might not be included in the Assistance Unit. This website will use “family” for simplicity’s sake, but keep in mind that there are situations when some members of your family are not considered to be part of the assistance unit.

To be even considered for the program, you must be a U.S. citizen or meet residency requirements, be a California resident, and not be a fleeing felon. You also have to have all of your children under six years old immunized, and children below the age of 16 must be attending school regularly.

For CalWORKs, your family must have a “deprived child”. Basically, this means that the child is not receiving adequate support from his/her caretakers. CalWORKs has more specific definitions: A “child” is someone who is under 18. That age limit is 19 for children who are expected to graduate from high school before their 19^th birthday. Children are “deprived” if they have at least one parent who is dead, disabled, continuously absent, in jail, or unemployed.

Your family also has to meet resource requirements. You can have up to $2,000 in resources ($3,000 if the family includes someone 60 or over), but not everything you own counts. Your home, household goods, and certain trusts, for example, are not counted, because you can’t easily use these things to financially support your family. You are also allowed to have a car that’s worth up to $4,650 without it counting as a resource. Any amount over $4,650 counts against the $2,000 limit, unless you get less than $1,500 from the sale after paying back bank loans.

Finally, you also have to meet income requirements. Your income has to be under a limit that is based on your family size. CalWORKs does not count all of your income. For example, SSI benefits, loans, Earned Income Tax Credits, and Federal Relocation/Disaster benefits do not count. After excluding this income, CalWORKs will take your earned income and subtract $90 for each working family member. They then add that to any unearned income to find your total countable income:

If your countable income is less than the limit for your family, you are eligible for CalWORKs. The limit is called a “needs standard” or “Minimum Basic Standard of Adequate Care” (MBSAC). It varies based on your family size and where you live. Region I includes the more urban counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Orange, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and Ventura) where cost of living is higher, so the MBSAC is correspondingly higher. Region II includes the more rural counties (all of the ones not listed above). The following chart shows the MBSAC for both regions. Note that this is NOT your benefit amount; it’s just the income eligibility limit. If you meet this limit, your benefit will be calculated using a different formula (see below).

Minimum Basic Standard of Adequate Care (MBSAC) Levels

Family Size	Region 1	Region 2
1	$532	$504
2	$872	$828
3	$1,080	$1026
4	$1,282	$1,220
5	$1,464	$1,392
6	$1,645	$1,565
7	$1,807	$1,717
8	$1,969	$1,873
9	$2,135	$1,025
10	$2,318	$2,204
More than 10	Add $20 for each extra person	Add $20 for each extra person

Through June 30, 2011. Source: CA Department of Social Services.