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Guaranteed Income Pilot Program

Overview

Per the Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget agreed to by California’s Governor and the Legislature, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) oversees a guaranteed income pilot program.

Guaranteed income pilot programs traditionally provide unconditional and recurring cash payments intended to support the basic needs of the recipients.

What is the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program?

The California Guaranteed Income (GI) Pilot Program provides grants to eligible entities that provide a guaranteed income to participants. The CDSS prioritized funding for pilot programs that serve California residents who age out of extended foster care at or after 21 years of age or who are pregnant individuals.

Following a competitive Request for Application (RFA) process, the CDSS awarded grant funding to the following seven pilot sites:

Notice of Intent to Award Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Grants

Impact on Other Social Safety Net Benefits

CDSS recognizes that receipt of guaranteed income may lead to impacts on eligibility for other safety-net benefits.

Pursuant to statute, (Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC) Section 18997), the State-funded GI Pilot Program payments are exempt from consideration as income and resources when determining California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program eligibility and grant amounts.  They are also exempt from consideration as income when determining CalFresh eligibility, as all of the approved projects include some amount of non-governmental funding in each direct payment, as required for the exemption.  The California Guaranteed Income Pilot Program grantees address benefit and eligibility impacts with participants through the inclusion of “benefits counseling” – empowering participants to make informed decisions about participation in the program.  For more information, please refer to All County Welfare Directors Letter (ACWDL) dated July 21, 2023.

For all other GI programs operating in the state, Assembly Bill (AB) 120 amended WIC Section 11157 to require that all GI payments made to CalWORKs applicants and recipients be exempt from consideration as income and resources when determining CalWORKs eligibility and grant amounts.  CalFresh income exemption policy is unchanged by AB 120.  Direct payments from GI programs are exempt from income calculations for CalFresh eligibility determinations when the GI payments are exempted by CalWORKs and contain any amount of non-governmental funds.  Payments from GI programs that do not contain any amount of non-governmental funds are not exempt for CalFresh, even if the GI payment is exempted by CalWORKs.

Please visit the CalWORKs and CalFresh Income Exemption webpage for more information. For additional information about exempting GI income for CalWORKs purposes, please refer to All County Letter (ACL) 24-09, issued February 28, 2024.  For additional information about exempting GI income for CalFresh purposes, please refer to All County Letter (ACL) 23-60, issued July 5, 2023

Evaluation of the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program

Following a competitive Request for Information (RFI) process, the CDSS selected the Urban Institute and the University of California, Berkeley as the evaluation partners for the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program.

Community Partner Engagement

Prior to the release of the State’s RFA and awarding of grant funds, the Department engaged in a series of listening sessions to benefit from feedback from community partners on the RFA and evaluation. Slides from those sessions are below:

October 25th Guaranteed Income Stakeholder Session Slides

December 6th Guaranteed Income Stakeholder Session Slides

December 7th Guaranteed Income Stakeholder Listening Session for Former Foster Youth Slides

August 8th Guaranteed Income Request for Application (RFA) Overview Stakeholder Session Slides

Stay in Touch

For the latest information regarding the State’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, please sign up for email updates via the CDSS Guaranteed Income Listserv.

For questions regarding the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, please email our team at GIPilot.info@dss.ca.gov.

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