Frequently Asked Questions

Authorized hours are the maximum number of hours per month your county has approved you to work for a specific recipient. They are determined through a needs assessment conducted by a county social worker and documented on your Notice of Action (NOA) or SOC 2 form. You cannot be paid for hours that exceed your authorized amount, so knowing your monthly total is the starting point for all scheduling.

A live-in provider shares a permanent residence with the IHSS recipient — meaning you live in the same home. Non-live-in providers travel to the recipient's home each day. The distinction matters because it affects your daily hour cap: live-in providers are generally limited to 12 hours per day, while non-live-in providers can work up to 16 hours per day. Your weekly cap and overtime rules are also different.

IHSS uses a Sunday-through-Saturday calendar week for calculating overtime. Your 40-hour overtime threshold resets every Sunday. This matters because a week can span two different pay periods (the 1st–15th and the 16th–end of month), and hours worked near a Sunday can either push you into OT early or delay it depending on how you schedule. Strategically placing hours on Sunday evenings rather than Monday mornings is a common way to maximize OT pay.

No. Your weekly hour cap limits how many hours you can be paid in any single Sun–Sat week. For most non-live-in providers the cap is 70:45 per week (66:00 if you serve two recipients), and for live-in providers the standard cap is also 70:45 (up to 90:00 with a county-approved exemption). Hours beyond your weekly cap will not be paid. Spreading hours across multiple weeks — while still maximizing overtime — is what IHSS Planner helps you do.

You earn overtime (1.5× your hourly rate) for every hour worked beyond 40 hours in a single Sunday–Saturday workweek. This applies to most IHSS providers; however, providers who are the recipient's parent or spouse are subject to a 40-hour weekly cap with no overtime. Travel time between two recipients counts toward the 40-hour threshold.

The standard weekly cap is 70:45 (70 hours and 45 minutes) for providers serving one recipient. If you serve two recipients, the cap is 66:00 per week. Live-in providers with a county-approved 90-hour exemption may work up to 90:00 per week. Parent and spouse providers are capped at 40:00 per week with no overtime.

Live-in providers are generally limited to 12 hours of paid work in any single calendar day. This rule exists because live-in providers are considered to be in the home and available, but are not expected to provide care around the clock. Scheduling software like IHSS Planner enforces this cap automatically so your daily totals never exceed 12:00.

Because overtime is calculated weekly (not monthly), working more hours in the first weeks of the month lets you cross the 40-hour threshold earlier and more often. If you spread hours evenly across all weeks, you may stay under 40 hours every week and earn no overtime at all. Front-loading — filling early weeks to the cap first — maximizes the number of weeks where you exceed 40 hours and earn time-and-a-half.

Submitting hours beyond your monthly authorized amount or your weekly cap will trigger a timesheet exception. The excess hours will be rejected and you will not be paid for them. If overpayment already occurred, your county may recover the amount through future paychecks. It is always the provider's responsibility to stay within authorized limits.

A timesheet exception is an administrative flag — it means the submitted hours don't match what was authorized, and processing is paused for review. A violation is more serious and implies an intentional discrepancy, which can trigger an investigation and affect your provider status. Most honest errors result in exceptions, not violations, but repeated patterns can escalate.

In some cases yes — you can submit a paper correction timesheet (SOC 846) with your county IHSS office to correct an error. The window for corrections and the process vary by county, so contact your county IHSS office as soon as you notice an error. Electronic timesheet corrections may also be available through the IHSS portal depending on your county.

Travel time pay compensates IHSS providers for the time spent traveling directly between two different recipients in the same day. It is paid at your straight-time hourly rate (not at an OT rate, even if you are in overtime). Travel time is a separate line item from care hours.

Only providers who work for two or more IHSS recipients qualify for travel time. You must travel directly from one recipient's home to another recipient's home within the same workday. Single-recipient providers, and providers who return home between recipients, generally do not qualify.

Yes — travel time hours count toward your weekly 40-hour overtime threshold and your weekly hour cap. The maximum reimbursable travel time is 7 hours per week. IHSS Planner accounts for travel time when calculating your paycheck estimate, assuming the weekly maximum for qualifying providers.