The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Nov 21, 2025 - Participants in the self-determination program are provided an individual budget, a fixed amount of money with which to purchase the services of their choosing. Participants then decide how to use the money in their individual budget by developing a spending plan, which identifies the services and items the participant needs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5086/1

Estimating the CalWORKs Take-Up Rate

Feb 2, 2021 - More recently, the state allocated $2  million in 2016 ‑17 and 2017 ‑18 to improve awareness and take-up of the California Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which provides money to low-income workers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4340

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Federal CalWORKs Pilot

Feb 21, 2025 - How does the administration plan to involve stakeholders, including the Legislature, in the selection of the outcome measures? How will benchmarks and targets along each of the selected measures be determined?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4978

The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Federal Fiscal Responsibility Act's Impacts on CalWORKs

Mar 5, 2024 - Cal-OAR also captures information on participating households ’ stability and well-being, such as access to supportive services like child care, educational attainment, wage progression, and rate of program exits with earnings.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4877

The 2026-27 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 18, 2026 - To be eligible, households generally must earn less than 200  percent of the federal poverty level. CalFresh benefits can be used to buy most groceries and some prepared food at participating vendors, which include most grocery and convenience stores.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5126

Trends in CalWORKs: Participant Characteristics

Jun 16, 2025 - Increased Earned Income Disregard (EID). The EID for applicants and participants (or the monthly dollar amount applicants and participants can earn before further income affects eligibility) changed multiple times over the last decade.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5057

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - The reason for the reduction is the recent voter approval of Proposition  35 (2024), which requires the state to spend less MCO tax money on offsetting General Fund spending and more money on provider rate increases.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2023-24 Budget: CalWORKs

Feb 22, 2023 - Figure  1 shows how CalWORKs caseload has changed since 2019-20. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, CalWORKs caseload began what was a historically anomalous decrease given high unemployment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4699

The 2022-23 Budget: Analysis of the Governor’s CalWORKs Proposals

Feb 11, 2022 - Increased the earned income disregard for applicants (or the amount CalWORKs applicants can earn before further income effects their eligibility for the program) from $90 to $450 per month. (The 2022 ‑23 budget includes $79.5  million General Fund to implement this change starting in March  2023.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4530

The 2022-23 Budget: CalHR California Leads Proposal

Feb 28, 2022 - For example, the most recent Women’s Earnings in State Civil Service report identified that the median woman in state service earns about 14 percent less than the median man in state service. The report explains that this pay gap exists primarily because women tend to work in classifications that are lower paid than the classifications that men dominate.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4564