The gap

Billions in California benefits go unclaimed each year

Hundreds of thousands of eligible people in California stall on paperwork while federal and state aid sits unused.

$1.5–2B

CalFresh left unclaimed each year 1

~710k

Uninsured but Medi-Cal–eligible 2

~80%

Eligible for FERA, not enrolled 3

~47%

CalFresh households missing CalEITC 4

~40%

CalWORKs-eligible, never enrolled 5

Start here

Find benefits for food, health, phone, and energy bills. CalClaim creates a personalized Application Guide that makes applying easier.

Sign up to be a partner

People reached

–

0 QR scans · 0 link clicks

Programs accessed

–

Clicks from CalClaim to official apply sites

Follow-throughs

–

Opened a page and saved it

Est. aid unlocked

–

Library annual estimates × follow-throughs

Where people found CalClaim

Approximate location only – never home addresses.

Community partners

Verified organizations ranked by people reached. Star marks the leader. Individuals partner privately—not listed here.

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About

CalClaim was created by concerned and caring citizens of California who want to make sure their friends and communities can access the help they need.

This project started out as a local personal project in Oakland, then launched formally to expand and serve all of California.

Contact

Comments, questions, feedback or collaborations?

Privacy

We can’t see your phone number or answers. We only see a unique id and whether you got through CalClaim successfully or ran into issues. We use that to detect problems and improve the system. We only save your preferences if you opt in to further messages; otherwise, type ERASE to the CalClaim messenger bot in Telegram to delete your information anytime.

Full privacy policy and disclaimer

What we collect

  • Answers you choose while finding programs (household size, income band, ZIP when needed for county programs, offer actions)
  • Your Application Guide items derived from our program list
  • Optional free-form text or voice notes you send as alpha feedback
  • Aggregate impact events: QR scans, friend-share and partner-link clicks, apply-page opens, follow-throughs (friend-share links use anonymous codes – not names)
  • Coarse location only (poster sites and city-level IP for the map – never street addresses)
  • Optional email and comments you submit on the contact form
  • Organization name, work email, and optional city if you sign up as a community partner (to send your QR kit and show your status page)
  • Street + city typed for the optional PG&E shut-off check is looked up once (US Census standardizer + PG&E map), then discarded – we keep only yes/no, never the street address
  • If you give, the gift amount, whether it is monthly, and Stripe’s payment id – not your card or bank numbers

What we do not collect

  • Required document uploads (ID, pay stubs, bills)
  • Card numbers, bank account numbers, or PayPal passwords (optional gifts are processed by Stripe and PayPal; we do not store them)
  • Marketing email lists
  • Precise GPS unless you choose to share a location
  • Immigration status answers (asked only when needed – not stored, not linked to your phone number)
  • Stored street addresses (the PG&E shut-off lookup does not keep them)

How we use data

We use your data anonymously to run your session, send next-steps and reminders, improve the demo UX, and publish aggregate impact metrics on the public dashboard. Optional gifts are processed by Stripe and PayPal; we do not store card or bank numbers. We do not give or sell your data.

Your choices

  • Type 'stop' – pause deadline reminders (keeps your data for your reference)
  • Type 'erase' – delete your CalClaim session data
  • Sign in from the partner leaderboard, then download the data shown on your status page (CSV of the metrics, charts, and map on that page)
  • Sign in from the partner leaderboard, then delete your account from your status page – we’ll warn you that all your partner information will be removed

Disclaimer

CalClaim is a personal portfolio project – not an official agency service. Estimates only. Not affiliated with PG&E, DHCS, CDSS, USDA, FCC, IRS, or any agency. Not tax, legal, or benefits advice. For tax credits or filing questions, consult a tax professional or a free VITA site. Official agencies decide eligibility.

CalClaim currently focuses more on California state benefits than federal ones. The federal programs shown are not exhaustive, and neither list is a complete catalog of available aid. Energy / utility programs (CARE, ESA, etc.) are just some of the programs in the list – not the whole product.

Read the policy on GitHub

Sources

For the gap stats above.

  1. Estimate from USDA/Mathematica FY2022 California SNAP take-up (81% of 4.618M eligible ≈ 880k not enrolled) × LAO SFY2022–23 average benefit (~$185/person/month, excluding pandemic emergency allotments). USDA FY2022 (PDF) · LAO Feb 2024
  2. UC Berkeley Labor Center projection for 2024: among remaining uninsured under 65, about 710,000 appear eligible for Medi-Cal. Labor Center 2024 brief (PDF) · Summary page
  3. CPUC Low-Income Oversight Board / Joint IOU report, Jan–Sep 2024: 81,654 FERA enrollments of 409,677 estimated eligible households (~20% enrolled / ~80% not). Joint IOU LIOB Dec 2024 (PDF)
  4. California Policy Lab (2021): among CalFresh households eligible for CalEITC in tax year 2017, take-up was 53% (~47% missed). Leading administrative estimate; no newer statewide take-up study has replaced it. CPL working paper (PDF) · PPIC Nov 2023
  5. California Legislative Analyst’s Office (2021): in 2019, about 60% of CalWORKs-eligible families enrolled (~40% did not). LAO Feb 2021