I've been getting food stamps for a couple years now. I'm disabled so I don't have to recertify as often as most do, but I still have to do it aproximately every 2 years. I was under the impression that I would be contacted when I was due for recertification.

As of this month I stopped receiving food stamps without any contact about it at all. I'm not sure if I missed the recertification deadline because I wasn't told why they were stopped, or even that they were being stopped. I found out when I attempted to buy groceries on the day I normally recieve them (the 8th) and found myself with a $180 charge that I had to pay out of pocket.

I only had $130 so not only did that eat up (no pun intended) all of my money for the month, it put me into debt. Fortunately this debt was through a friend who doesn't charge interest and is flexible about repayment (I don't fuck with credit cards). Next time I'll be sure to check my EBT balance ahead of time.

As of today, the 15th, I still haven't received any of my food stamps for the month. I'm confused and have a lot of questions. I'm planning to get in touch with HHSA tomorrow but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone here could help with some of the questions.

I'm looking for answers to the following:

Are they actually obligated notify me when I need to recertify? And if not how am I supposed to find out when the deadline is?

Are they obligated to notify me when my benefits are stopped?

Do I have any ability to get backpay/get my money back if they did fail to meet their obligations?

Are there any other things this sudden stop in my benefits may have been caused by? My eligibility hasn't changed at all as far as I know. Neither has the payment schedule for my state (CA).

If it is a missed recertification deadline does this mean I have to reapply? If so how long should I expect to be waiting to get benefits again?

I am currently at risk of homelessness, would this allow me to expedite the application process if I need to reapply?

Thank you for any help you can offer, I'm open to advice on how to handle this as well. I'm really stressed and not looking forward to putting every penny I have towards rent & food again.

Update: I did call them, apparently my benefits were stopped in January. I have no clue how it took this long for me to realize, I guess I had a lot of rollover from prior months.

They claim that they sent me notice that I needed to recertify in December and that they sent me notice of my benefits stopping in January. I didn't recieve either of those notices.

Since its been so long I do have to reapply and wait to be approved again. Since they have record of notifying me there isnt anything I can do about the money I lost, regardless of whether or not I actually got the notices.

Thank you for all the advice, I'll be tracking recertification deadlines myself in the future so this hopefully doesn't happen again.