In order to see if someone is poor enough to get CalWORKs, there are five general questions to ask with respect to property and income. In the following sections, we explain how to analyze and answer these questions for most income and property. Differentiating Income and Resources. All funds received by the family or owned by the family are either income or resources. Generally, any money received during the calendar month is income.
Any income held until the beginning of the following month becomes a resource.
However, some funds received by the family may be considered resources even in the month of receipt. Once you determine whether the item should be treated as income or as property, you must ask whether it is actually available to the family. If it is not, it generally cannot be considered in determining eligibility for CalWORKs. Two noteworthy exceptions to the availability rule exist in the CalWORKs program. First, in determining a family's eligibility and grant level, counties can presume that certain relatives living together, even if they are not all being aided, make their income available to one another, whether they actually are doing so or not.