Expectant Parent Payment (EPP)

WIC 11465(e), ACL 21-123, AB 153, ACIN I-45-22

Effective January 1, 2022, expectant parent payments will be available to pregnant minors and NMD who receive AFDC-FC or ARC payments. A $900 payment (per child) must be issued directly to the minor/NMD for the last three months of the pregnancy. If the pregnancy is not identified before the seventh month of pregnancy, the child/NMD may still receive the entire lump sum payment of $2,700 (per child). There is no change to infant supplement policy.

Important: Pregnant children/youth receiving APP or Kin-GAP are not eligible for this payment.

Payment and Rates

The payment will:

Be issued directly to the minor or NMD,
Be same rate (equivalent to the infant supplement) regardless of the placement type,
Not be prorated, and
Not be subject to overpayments.
If the pregnancy is not identified before the seventh month of pregnancy, the child/NMD may still receive the entire lump sum payment.

Important: There may be instances where both an EPP and Infant Supplement will be issued in the same month.

CalSAWS

Initially, CalSAWS was unable to process the EPP monthly and workers had to issue a lump-sum payment of $2,700. CalSAWS Release 23.07 programmed functionality so workers may issue a $900 payment on a monthly basis for the last three months of a minor/NMD’s pregnancy. The EPP must be added via the Need List page, otherwise fiscal will not be able to claim correctly. See Chewable Byte (CB) cats_CB_2024-87.pdf for detailed instructions.

FC Providers

To issue the payment directly to the minor/NMD, they must be added as an "Expectant Foster Youth" in the CalSAWS Resource Data Bank. Workers will send an email to the FC Providers in-box including the following information:

Payee Full Name

Payee'sDate of Birth
Payee Residence Address
State “this request is for EPP issuance”

Important: EWs must clearly state in the email that these are expectant foster youth for EPP so that a SOC 158A is not requested.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the EPP, the pregnant minor or NMD must:

Be in at least in the seventh month of pregnancy,
Be receiving AFDC-FC or ARC payments, and
Reside in a home-based foster care home, STRTP, SILP, THPP or THP-NMD placement.

Documentation

The SW or PO must provide:

Written verification of pregnancy from a medical provider indicating the expected due date, and
An email to the fostercareprocessing@ssa.sccgov.org in-box requesting EPP.