Q: My IHSS hours were cut. What are my deadlines?
A: Two clocks, and they are nothing like each other. Nearly everyone hears about the long one and misses the short one.
Ninety days to ask for a hearing. You are "not entitled to a hearing… unless he or she files a request… within 90 days after the order or action complained of."¹ Late filings can be accepted up to 180 days for good cause.²
But to keep your hours running, you must file before the notice takes effect. Aid paid pending is a separate rule with a separate trigger: aid continues "when the claimant files a request for a state hearing prior to the effective date of the Notice of Action."³ The Department's own worked example: "If the notice is mailed on April 20th to be effective May 1st, the request shall be filed before May 1."⁴
So a county notice that gives you ten days before the effective date gives you ten days, not ninety, if you need the hours to continue.
Missing the short clock does not kill the appeal. It kills the hours during the appeal. If you are the caregiver, that is the difference between being paid through the process and not.
What that means in practice
Read the notice for two dates, not one. The date it was mailed, and the effective date of the action. The second one is your real deadline.
File immediately, then build the case. Nothing requires your evidence to be ready when you file. Request the hearing first, gather the medical statements and the incident log afterwards.
Ask for the assessment documents. The county's own worksheets, the SOC 821 and the SOC 873 show how the hours were calculated. You cannot argue against arithmetic you have not seen.
How to request
Call the CDSS State Hearings Division at (800) 743-8525 (TDD 1-800-952-8349), or use the request form on the back of the Notice of Action, or file online.⁵ Any of the three works.
One practical warning: the phone number printed on an older county notice may be out of date. Use the number above and keep a record of the date and time you called — for aid paid pending, the date you filed is the whole ballgame.
What happens next
A hearing is not a courtroom. You may bring anyone you like, including the person who provides your care. You may represent yourself or bring an advocate. And the county has to explain, on the record, how it reached the number of hours it reached.
If the cut was to Protective Supervision specifically, the arguments are different from an ordinary hours dispute, and they turn on a regulation that changed in July 2024. What Protective Supervision actually requires →
Do this: find the Notice of Action, circle the effective date, and if it has not passed, request the hearing today — by phone at (800) 743-8525 is fastest, and note the date and time. Then ask the county in writing for the assessment worksheets. Ninety days is the deadline for the appeal; the effective date is the deadline for the money.
Sources
- Welfare & Institutions Code §10951(a)(1) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. The underlying right to a hearing is at §10950(a) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov; the 90-day limit is in §10951, not §10950.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §10951(a)(2).
- California Department of Social Services, Manual of Policies and Procedures §22-072.5 — cdss.ca.gov.
- MPP §22-072.51 (handbook example). MPP §22-072.11 carries the rule across to the Division 30 services programmes, including IHSS.
- CDSS State Hearings Division — cdss.ca.gov.
All statutes and regulations read on the operative text on 18 August 2026. This page describes the rules; it is not legal advice. Note which is which: the 90 days is statute, and aid paid pending is regulation — that distinction matters if you end up arguing about it.