CalFresh Benefits Stolen From Your EBT Card? How to Get Them Back

Yes. California replaces CalFresh food benefits stolen by card skimming, cloning or a phone or text scam, up to two months of your benefits each time and twice per federal fiscal year, when you file form EBT 2259 with your county within 90 days of the theft. The county must put approved benefits back on your card within 10 business days of receiving the form. Start now: call California EBT Customer Service at 1-877-328-9677 to shut off the card and order a new one.

Reports that stolen SNAP benefits are no longer replaced refer to federal money, which covered thefts only through December 20, 2024. Since December 21, 2024, California has replaced them with state funds, under limits written into Welfare and Institutions Code section 10072. The same rule covers state-funded CFAP food benefits.

What California replaces, and how much

The replacement covers transactions someone else made while the card stayed with you: a skimmer at a checkout or ATM copied the card, a thief built a cloned card, or a caller or text posing as EBT, a store or a government office tricked you into giving out your card number and PIN. Benefits a thief spends after changing your PIN or contact details count too.

Amount: the county replaces what was stolen, up to two times your last monthly allotment. With a $300 monthly allotment, the cap is $600 per replacement; if $450 was taken, you get $450 back.
How often: two replacements per federal fiscal year, which runs October 1 to September 30. All the thefts you list on one EBT 2259 within the 90-day window count as one replacement. When they look like two separate thefts, such as charges in different states, in different months or weeks apart, the county must contact you and can count them as two, which lets the total go above the two-month cap. That uses both of your replacements for the year; if you already had one since October 1, only the first theft is replaced.
Deadline: 90 days from the date of the theft, counted from the theft itself, so a theft you spot late has less time left. If anyone tells you that you had 10 days, that rule ended in December 2023; you have 90.
Paperwork: the EBT 2259 and your signature. You need no police report.

CalFresh food benefits vs. CalWORKs cash

	CalFresh food benefits	CalWORKs and other cash aid
Amount replaced	What was stolen, up to two months of your last allotment	The full amount stolen
How often	Twice per federal fiscal year	Skimming: no limit. A scam where you gave out your card number and PIN: once every 36 months
Forms	EBT 2259	EBT 2259, plus EBT 2259A for a scam
Deadline	90 days from the theft	90 days from the theft

The EBT 2259 covers CalFresh and cash together, so if thieves drained both accounts, one report lists every transaction. Our CalWORKs guide covers the cash program itself.

What to do today

Shut off the card. Call 1-877-328-9677 (TTY 1-800-735-2929); state law requires this line to run 24 hours a day. Once you report, the card is disabled and you are told how to get a new one. If you have the ebtEDGE app, freeze the card there first so nothing else goes through while you wait on hold. You can also report the theft through BenefitsCal or at your county office.
List every stolen transaction. Open transaction history in ebtEDGE, which shows the last 365 days, and write down the date, amount and location of each purchase or withdrawal someone else made. If a household member holds a second card on your account, check with them first.
File form EBT 2259, Report of Electronic Theft of Benefits. Get the form on BenefitsCal or at your county office, then upload it on BenefitsCal or hand it in at the office. County staff must help you fill it in on the spot if you ask. In Los Angeles County you can also report by phone to DPSS at (866) 613-3777. Check skimming or scamming, list every transaction from step 2, then sign and date it. Keep a copy and note the date the county received it.
Lock down the new card. Choose a new PIN in ebtEDGE or at 1-877-328-9677 as soon as the card arrives. Since April 29, 2025, every California EBT cardholder has been issued a chip-and-tap card, so insert or tap it instead of swiping. If a reader rejects the chip and pushes you to swipe, use another register; a shim hidden in the chip slot forces a swipe so thieves can skim the card. In ebtEDGE, keep the card frozen between shopping trips and block out-of-state and internet transactions unless you buy groceries online.
Watch for the deposit. On the tenth business day after the county received your form, check your balance. If nothing has posted and no notice has come, call your county worker with your filing date.

Where your case splits

If your physical card was lost or stolen, purchases made with that card and your PIN before you called fall outside the theft replacement. California law protects you from the moment you report the card: anything taken after that call is replaced. Call before you do anything else.

If someone you know used your card number and PIN, such as a relative or roommate you shared them with, the county denies replacement for those benefits. Change your PIN and get a new card today, and report the use to your local police.

If you already had two CalFresh replacements since October 1, a third theft in the same federal fiscal year goes unreplaced, and the count starts over the next October 1. Keep the card frozen whenever you are not at the register.

If thieves changed your PIN or locked you out of ebtEDGE, call 1-877-328-9677 for a new card and PIN, and tell the county about the lockout when you file your EBT 2259. The state treats a takeover of your account as electronic theft.

If the stolen benefits were SUN Bucks, they sit outside this replacement; the SUN Bucks helpline is the same number, 1-877-328-9677, and our SUN Bucks guide covers the rest. For groceries while any claim is pending, use the food pantry finder.

What you can get, and your leverage if the county says no

A deadline with force of law: section 10072 gives the county 10 business days from receiving your request to replace eligible benefits.
A state hearing: you have 90 days, starting the day after the county mailed or gave you its denial notice, to request one. Call the State Hearings Division at (800) 743-8525, request it online, or fill in the form on the back of the notice. You can also request a hearing when the county never acts on your EBT 2259.
Free legal help: call 1-800-952-5253 for a legal aid referral. Get that help before the hearing if the county says you made the purchases yourself or treated a scam as a lost card.

Bring your record to the hearing: the date you filed, the transaction list with times and places you never shopped, and anything that shows the card was in your hands, such as a purchase you made the same day in your own neighborhood.

Hearing request to copy

I request a state hearing. Name: ______. Case number: ______. County: ______. Program: CalFresh (add CalWORKs if cash was taken). On [date of notice], the county denied replacement of $______ in benefits stolen from my EBT card on [dates of theft]. I had my card with me, I never gave my card number or PIN to anyone I know, and I filed form EBT 2259 on [date], within 90 days of the theft. If the county never answered, write instead: I filed form EBT 2259 on [date], and the county has neither replaced the benefits nor sent a notice within 10 business days. I ask that the county replace the stolen benefits.

Today: call 1-877-328-9677 to shut off the card, write down every transaction someone else made, and file the EBT 2259 on BenefitsCal or at your county office. Within 10 business days of the county getting your form, the replacement posts to your EBT card as CalFresh food benefits, or a denial notice arrives that you can take to a state hearing.