EBT Down in 17 States Today
Cuts Coming To Florida Food Stamps On November 1st
Purchases with Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards (also known as Food Stamps) were shutdown in 17 states temporarily on Saturday morning, October 12, 2013.
"During a routine test of our
back-up systems Saturday morning, Xerox’s Electronic Benefits Transfer
(EBT) system experienced a temporary shutdown," Xerox stated in a release today. "While the system is now
up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to
experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. This disruption
impacts EBT beneficiaries who rely on the system for SNAP and
WIC."
Xerox added that their technical staff "is addressing the issue and expect the system to be
restored soon. Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can
work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher
system where available."
Florida was not affected by the EBT outage because the Sunshine State uses a company other than Xerox for its EBT payment processing. Florida did have an EBT blackout on September 16, 2013 when it switched to the new vendor.
However, benefit payments for the Florida food stamp program are projected to end on October 31st,
2013 due to lack of federal funding caused by the U.S. government shut
down.
A State of Florida budget analysis performed for the Florida Senate stated that federal funding for Florida’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) expired with the rest of the farm bill on September 30, 2013. To bridge this funding gap, the federal Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) will use its authority under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to continue operations and benefit payments to Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards (also known as Food Stamps) only through October 31, 2013.
Federal funding for cash payments to welfare recipients, known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
(TANF), also expired
September 30, 2013. The Florida Senate budget analysis stated that
this program now lacks
federal
authorization and funding.
According
to the recent U.S. Government revised data from SNAP, the number of
Floridians on food stamps was 3,568,672
in June 2013, a 4.4% increase compared to June 2012. Florida food
stamp enrollment grew at twice the national rate (2.3%) for the same
time period.
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