Some people cannot get CalFresh benefits at all. It may be because they are being punished for violating CalFresh program rules or are disqualified for a period of time. It may be simply because the law says they are persons who cannot get CalFresh benefits. When a person is ineligible for benefits, the CalFresh office must follow special rules to decide how much of the ineligible person’s income, resources and deductions will count when determining whether the other members of the household are eligible, and how much in CalFresh benefits the other members will get. [7 C.F.R. §§ 273.1(b), 273.11(c) and (d); MPP §§ 63-402.2, 63-503.441, 63-503.442, 63-503.45.]
The CalFresh office will never count the person who is not eligible to decide how many people are in the household. The rules for counting income, deductions and resources for people who are not in the household depend on the reason a person is not included in the household. Sometimes the CalFresh office will count all of the ineligible household member’s income resources and deductions. Sometimes it will count a pro-rata share of the person’s income against other people, which means dividing into equal shares. [MPP § 63-503.375.] For example, the income of persons excluded because of immigration status or not having a Social Security Number is prorated. [MPP § 63.502.373(b).] When the CalFresh office pro-rates someone’s income and counts part of it to other people, the CalFresh office usually will also count a pro-rata share of the expenses that the person pays so that the other household members can have a deduction for those expenses. See the section about how to calculate the monthly grant amount for more information about how deductions affect benefit levels.
This chart and these examples may be helpful about treatment of income and resources of persons excluded from a CalFresh household.