CalWORKs 60-Month Lifetime Limit

Effective January 1, 1998, the CalWORKs program imposed a cumulative 60-month lifetime limit on the receipt of cash assistance by any aided adult.

Effective 7/1/2011, Senate Bill (SB) 72 reduced the number of months in the CalWORKs program from 60 months to a 48-month lifetime limit for all aided adults, including a stepparent or caretaker relative of an aided child. This includes the aided parent or aided caretaker relative of an SSI/SSP child or a Foster Care child. All aided adults who have reached or exceeded the 60-month time on aid limit must be discontinued.

Effective May 1, 2022, Assembly Bill (AB) 79 extends the CalWORKs Time on Aid Clock lifetime limit from 48 months to 60 months for all aided adults, including a stepparent or caretaker relative of an aided child. This includes the aided parent or aided caretaker relative of an SSI/SSP child or a Foster Care child. All aided adults who have reached or exceeded the 60-month time on aid limit must be discontinued.

Start Date of CalWORKs 60-Month Period

The CalWORKs program began January 1, 1998. Any month (January 1998 or later) in which the individual received cash aid from any state and did not have a time limit exemption counts towards their CalWORKs cumulative 60-month lifetime limit.

Months prior to January 1998 are NOT counted towards the CalWORKs 60-month time limit, including those months when cash aid was received from another state.

Informing Requirements

In accordance with State regulations, counties are required to provide individuals aided as adults, a description of the 60-month lifetime limit regulations in writing and orally.

Informing notice CalWORKs 60-Month Time Limit (CW 2184) must be given to all CalWORKs applicants at the point of Intake. CW 2184 must also be given to CalWORKs recipients any time a TOA Notice of Action (NOA) is provided and at their annual RD.

A NOA indicating the balance of the client’s CalWORKs Time on Aid (TOA) must be issued at the following intervals:

When CalWORKs is approved,
At the client’s annual CalWORKs RD,
When the client reaches between their 54th and 57th CalWORKs month, and
At the client’s (or former client’s) request.

Note: Client requests for TOA information MUST be documented in the Journal Detail page.

Approval of CalWORKs

The Eligibility Worker is required to provide all adults approved for CalWORKs with a TOA NOA indicating the number of CalWORKs months used to date and the potential amount of CalWORKs months remaining. In addition, if the client was exempt from the time limits in any months, these months must be listed.

Annual Redeterminations

Eligibility Workers are required to issue a TOA NOA for each active adult at the time of their annual redetermination. The TOA NOA provides the client with the following information:

Date of their last time limit notice,
Total number of CalWORKs months used,
Additional months used since the last time limit notice,
Months that did not count against their time limit, and
Number of months remaining on their CalWORKs time limit.

CalWORKs Time Limit Balance Requests

Whenever an active adult or former adult recipient makes a request to know the balance of their CalWORKs TOA, the appropriate NOA must be generated, completed by the EW, and sent to the requester. The adult’s request for TOA information MUST be documented in the Journal Detail page.

During 54th through 57th Countable Months

Each recipient must be informed of their TOA balance via a NOA. The NOA must be provided in any of the months between their 54th and 57th month on aid. The following notices must be sent:

The Notice of Your CalWORKs Time Limit - 54th Month On Aid (CW 2189A) must be sent out on the recipient's 54th month of aid.
The Notice Of Your CalWORKs Time Limit - 57th Month On Aid (CW 2189B) must be sent out on the recipient's 57th month of aid.

Notice of Action (NOA) NOT Required

A TOA NOA is not required in only two situations:

Within 3 months of when a previous TOA NOA was provided,
Once an exemption for individuals who are 60 years of age or older has been established.

Federally Funded TANF and State Funded CalWORKs 60-Month Lifetime Limits

The TANF 60-month time-limited federal program (TANF) began in California effective December 1996. The State CalWORKs program began January 1, 1998.

Parents or caretaker relatives who began receiving federally funded cash aid (TANF) in any month from any state PRIOR TO January 1998 will have different beginning dates to determine their federal 60-month time limit and CalWORKs 60-month time limit. These two periods overlap.

For all parents or caretaker relatives who began receiving cash aid in January 1998 or later (from any state), the federal and CalWORKs periods have the same beginning date and run concurrently.

The federal TANF 60-month time limit applies to adults and minors (under age 18) who are the head of household or married to a head of household.

The State CalWORKs 60-month time limit applies to all adults, age 18 or older. The 60-month time limit shall not apply to children or non-minor dependents.

State Funded CalWORKs

Once a recipient has received federal TANF for the cumulative 60-month lifetime limit (including cash aid received from another state), state funding continues until the recipient has received 60 months of cash aid under the CalWORKs 60-month lifetime limit. This can happen when CalWORKs months have not been counted due to a CalWORKs exemption.

If a recipient is not eligible for federal TANF and receives state funded CalWORKs, the federal TANF 60-month time clock does not start until there is federal eligibility.

Example Example A non-citizen caretaker relative has been receiving CalWORKs for their two citizen children since May 1998. The non-citizen caretaker relative becomes a naturalized citizen in August 2001. The case would be changed from a CalWORKs aid type to a TANF federal aid type effective September 2001. The caretaker relative would be entitled to TANF from September 2001 until the end of August 2006.

Countable Months - CalWORKs 60-Month Time Limit

The CalWORKs 60-month lifetime limit includes months when the Assistance Unit (AU):

Received a partial or full month of cash aid under CalWORKs,
Received only a Special Need payment,
Received a Zero Basic Grant (ZBG) except for "Grant Under $10" ZBG,
Received an Immediate Need payment,
Received Aid Paid Pending (APP),
Contained an individual who was penalized, but remained in the AU,
Received a Diversion Payment (Refer to Diversion for complete information)
Received a grant payment in California since January 1, 1998,
Received TANF federal cash aid from another state since January 1, 1998,
Received NTP since January 1, 1998, or
Received an overpayment that exceeded the CalWORKs time limit.

CalWORKs from Other Counties

When an adult is requesting cash assistance and has received CalWORKs in another county, the EW must contact the previous county to verify that the information listed in Statewide Cash Aid Time Limits (SCATL) is correct. The EW must use the Program Calendar page in SCATL to record Out of County CalWORKs event records. Refer to Time on Aid Handbook Add New Time Clock Information for more information.

For contact information in other California counties, go to https://toa.otsi.ca.gov/county-contact.html.

Intake Application at 59 CalWORKs Months

When an adult applies for CalWORKs and has one month left on their CalWORKs time clock, if the EW runs EBDC from the application month, CalSAWS will incorrectly pass the timed-out adult for the second month. This will result in an overpayment. As a workaround, the EW must take the following steps:

Manually add the application month on the Program Calendar page in SCATL.
Run EDBC.
Reject the Basic Approval (M40-171D) Notice of Action (NOA), since the second month's cash aid grant amount incorrectly includes the timed-out adult.
Review and send the Your CalWORKs 60-Month Time Limit (CW 2187) notice.
Manually generate a Basic Approval (M40-171D -NA 1239 SAR) NOA.