Sacramento Family First Stimulus Check: Expected Payout Date!

Sacramento County has come up with a new Guaranteed Income Pilot program called Family First Economic Support Pilot to support vulnerable families in managing their expenses and reducing child poverty. The application for the program ended on 13 October 2024, now applicants are wondering about the paycheck date, here you will know about the stimulus check date and other details.

Sacramento Family First Stimulus Check

The Sacramento County Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services has launched the guaranteed income FFESP program in collaboration with the United Way California Capital Region to support eligible families struggling to make a livelihood and pay their bills.

With this program, Sacramento County intends to relieve the financial stress on families through guaranteed money. The most targeted group of the program is African American/ Black and Alaska Native/ American Indians living in the County.  

The Department has launched its separate website and invited applications from eligible families on 30 Sep 2024. The application window for the FFESP has closed down on 13 October 2024 at midnight. Now, the people who have applied to receive the guaranteed income await the Stimulus Check.

According to the program guidelines, the eligible families will receive the stimulus check in mid-December 2024, that is, 15 Dec 2024. Afterward, for 12 months, you will receive the payment on the 15th of each month under the FFESP program.  

  • 4th Stimulus Checks

Sacramento Family First Stimulus Check Eligibility Criteria 

People who meet the following eligibility requirements will receive guaranteed income under the Family First Economic Support Pilot program:

  • People living in any of the following ZIP codes:
  • 95838
  • 95815
  • 95823
  • 95821
  • 95825
  • 95828
  • People who are caring for Black/ African American, Alaska Native & American Indian children of age 0 to 5 years as a parent or legal guardians. The child must be living with you for at least half a year and you are responsible for the child care.
  • People who fall under the 200% federal poverty level, meaning their annual household income should be below the 200% federal poverty line, for instance:
  • 2 people: (1 adult and 1 child) $40,880
  • 3 people: $51,640
  • 4 people: $62,400
  • 5 people: $73,160
  • 6 People: $83,920
  • 7 People: $94,680
  • 8 People: $105,440
  • Above 8 people: add $10,760 per person.  
  • People must not be participating in any other government or non-governmental guaranteed income programs.

Sacramento Family First Economic Support Amount

According to the FFESP program, the DACFAS partnering with United Way California Capital Region will offer a guaranteed income of $725 to the eligible families. The monthly payout will be sent for a year to the eligible families. 

The monthly cash benefits will be directly paid to the beneficiary’s account or through their chosen method. The enrolled participants will either receive the payment via debit card or through opening the bank account. The bank account should be opened with SAFE Credit Union as the funds will be deposited into your SAFE Credit Union Bank account. 

According to the program details, the CDSS will release the State Block grant for the Counties to support this cause of keeping families together. The payments will reduce the number of children going to foster care as the parents can’t take care of the kids due to financial issues. The unconditional and consistent support for vulnerable families would offer financial relief for a year till Sep 2025. 

How does the Sacramento Family First Program work? 

The applicants who have applied for the Sacramento FFESP program will be selected for financial assistance randomly. According to the program guidelines, the authority will select the two hundred eligible applicants using the random number generator. 

The selection of the eligible applicants for the payout will be done between October and December 2024. The authority will inform the randomly selected applicants and ask them to verify their eligibility. The applicants would need to present some documents to prove their eligibility and identity to the authority to receive the payout. 

The reason the authority goes for random selection of the beneficiaries is because they want to ensure the needy people receive assistance. 

The authority will also review the impact of the pilot program on the selected applicants. The applicants should know if they are ineligible for the program or withdraw from the program their application will be canceled for the program. After their candidature for the $725 amount, the authority will select the additional applicants for the vacant space randomly in the same way they did to select the 200 applicants.

Is FFESP assistance taxable?

Many of the recipients must be thinking if the upcoming assistance will increase their tax bill or make them fall in the tax bracket, however, they should be worry-free as the DCFAS has confirmed the FFESP funds are non-taxable. 

So, the FFESP recipients can easily enjoy the above assistance as they do not have to pay tax for it. However, you should consult with your tax preparer and save the program participation and randomly selected notification for the future. 

Impact of the Sacramento FFESP program

Sacramento County has started this program to provide relief to needy families, with constant and fixed support it could impact the lives of the people in the following ways:

  • The selected families would be able to focus more on the well-being of the children.
  • The Children from the Black/ African American, Alaska Native & American Indian aged 0 to 5 years lives would be improved as the percentage of foster care enrollment is higher among them.
  • The authority has planned to conduct baseline and follow-up surveys after the distribution of the payout and volunteer survey to understand the impact of the pilot program on the selected families.

Sacramento County has started the FFESP program as a pilot program for a year, and the eligible applicants who have applied should stay updated as the notification for the selection can be pop anytime soon before the payment on 15 Dec 2024.