WHAT ARE THE TIME LIMITS?
In general, adults are eligible for CalWORKs for 60 months in their lifetime. there are several reasons why a month in which you do receive aid might not count toward the 60 month lifetime limit. Adults also do not need to participate in Welfare-to-Work for months they are exempt, but they can volunteer to participate.
Clock Stoppers or Exemptions
You can ask for an exemption to “stop the clock” for any months which should not have been counted in your time limit. Your “time on aid” clock does not tick and you do not need to participate in welfare-to-work if you are exempt.
Your request should be in writing, but can be verbal. DHA has to send you a written decision within 15 days of the request (unless something happens that is beyond the DHA’s control). If you disagree with the decision you may request a state fair hearing. DHA is required to look at your case records before asking you to provide information or documentation which you already turned in.
Months that do not count toward your time limit include:
• Sanctioned or No Check—Any month you do not get a CalWORKs aid payment for yourself even if you receive various services like child-care or job training or counseling. No payment is issued for you if you are sanctioned that month, the payment would have been less than $10, or you are caring for an aided child but not aided yourself.
• Disabled—Any month you are sick, disabled, or injured for over 30 days and it interferes with going to work or WTW for the minimum number of hours (20, 30 or 35 hours.) You may be required to provide a doctor’s report. This includes mental and physical illness.
• Caring For a Sick Family Member—Any month you are caring for an ill or disabled person living in the home and that caretaking interfered with regular employment or participation in WTW activities.
• Foster Child Placement or Risk of Placement—Any month you are a non-parent relative taking care of a child who is a dependent ward of the court or “at risk of foster care placement” and that responsibility interfered with regular employment or participation in WTW activities. This can exempt, for example, a grandparent under age 60 who could not both be regularly employed and care for the child.
• Domestic Violence—Any month you cannot participate in CalWORKs as a result of domestic abuse. You do not have to be in a domestic abuse situation now. You also qualify if you are suffering from the effects of past abuse. You only need to tell your worker [“self-declare”] to qualify; no other proof, not even a police report, is required, unless the county questions the information you give. Months will not count and you will not need to do welfare-to-work for as long as you continue to have effects of the abuse or you are in danger of more violence.
• Over 60— Any month the parent or caretaker relative is 60 years or older.
• Teen Parent—Any month you are a teen parent or pregnant, under age 19, do not yet have a GED or high school diploma, and either participate in or are excused from Cal Learn or another teen parent program approved by the DHA. You can be excused from Cal Learn in any month in which you can show the DHA you do not have necessary childcare or transportation, you are sick, disabled, or expelled and an alternative school program is not available. You can’t use Cal Learn as a clock-stopper after you get the GED or diploma. When there is no funding the Cal Learn program is not offered.
• Native American—You are a Native American who lives in “Indian Country”, or on a reservation if 50% or more of the adults there are unemployed. In a family with two aided parents, both adults must meet one of the above clock stoppers for the month not to count.
Iin addition, child support paid to the County by an absent parent takes time off your clock. Ask the Department of Child Support Services to give you an accounting off the amount of child support they have collected on your behalf during your 60 months on aid. Then ask your WTW worker to make sure you get credit for paid child support.
After the 60-month lifetime limit has been used, the time limit can be extended if all adult parents or caretaker relatives in the home of the aided child meet any of these tests:
• 60 years or older
• Disabled, receiving State Disability Insurance, Temporary Workers’ Compensation, In-Home Supportive Services or SSI, and unable to work or go to WTW
• Not able to go to WTW or employment because of an “impairment”, for example a learning disability or chronic mental illness. You must have a history of “full cooperation” in WTW for a sustained period. Full cooperation means no sanctions and satisfactory attendance.
However, even with a sanction this exemption can be granted if you were ever in WTW for 6 months straight, or if you were in WTW for two periods within a two year period that are equal to six or more months.
• There are no local jobs that accommodate your disabilities
• A non-parent relative taking care of a child “at risk of foster care placement” and that limits your ability to go to WTW or employment. Example, if you are a grandparent under age 60 who cannot both be regularly employed and care for the child, DHA can continue your CalWORKs aid rather than having the child enter foster care.
• A domestic abuse survivor who cannot do WTW because of the abuse. You do not have to be in a domestic abuse situation now. You will also qualify if you are suffering from the effects of past abuse and the effects limit your ability to go to WTW or work.
• Taking care of an ill or disabled household member if DHA agrees that this harms your ability to participate or work.