Hoosier recipients of welfare, food stamp assistance to face temporary outage

More than 800,000 Hoosiers who receive cash welfare assistance or food stamps will temporarily lose access to their benefits later this month.

The outage will occur as the state switches providers for the system tied to the debit-like cards recipients use at grocery stores and ATMs. The transition could run for more than 13 hours beginning the night of Sept. 26. During that time, participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families won’t be able to use their benefits.

The state is switching providers for the electronic system it uses to distribute benefits onto the debit-like cards after its current vendor, JPMorgan Chase, decided to no longer offer those kind of services. The outage affects all Hoosier Works EBT cardholders enrolled in those programs, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

There were approximately 813,000 SNAP recipients and 17,000 TANF recipients in the state as of the end of July, according to FSSA.

The outage will begin at 11 p.m. Sept. 26, with access to benefits anticipated to be restored by 12:30 p.m. Sept. 27.

“The 800,000+ EBT cardholders in Indiana translates to millions of pieces of data that must be closed out and transferred from the one provider to the other. We can envision no feasible way to transfer all of the data, ensure accurate balances and serve customers effectively without a temporary outage. We have worked diligently with both providers to ensure that the outage is for as short of a time as is possible,” FSSA spokeswoman Marni Lemons said in a statement.

Social service providers said Wednesday was the first they’ve heard of the planned outage. They worry some recipients won’t realize it’s occurring.

“My feeling is a lot of people are going to be unaware of it and are probably going to be shocked when they go to use it that day and are unable to use it,” said Dawn Dunderdale, program manager at Hawthorne Community Center.

Especially with the closure of the four Double 8 Foods stores in July in the Downtown area, recipients of those benefits are now having to get a ride or catch a bus to go grocery shopping, said Tawnya McCrary, who manages the Center for Working Families program at Edna Martin Christian Center.

“If a recipient isn’t aware that the state is going to be offline, there are going to be people going to the grocery store to purchase groceries,” McCrary said.

The state tried to plan the outage around lower use times. More than likely most recipients will already have exhausted their benefits for the month by Sept. 26, Lemons said. The outage will occur three days after the last SNAP benefits of the month have been applied to EBT cards, Lemons said. TANF participants receive benefits on the first day of the month.

The agency is sending a postcard to EBT users by mail regarding the outage. Grocery and convenience stores also are receiving posters to notify participants.

The new vendor, Xerox, is being paid $9.23 million to provide the service under a four-year contract. The contract began in October 2014 and runs through September 2018, according to state records.

Recipients will still use their current card following the transition. The transition also won’t alter benefits or PIN numbers, according to FSSA. The toll-free customer-service line will remain the same at (877) 768-5098 but the website will change to ebt.acs-inc.com.

The outage follows earlier changes to the SNAP program announced by the state.

More than 13,000 Marion County residents run the risk of losing their food stamp benefits as soon as November unless they start meeting newly reinstated federal work and job training requirements.

The loss of benefits is expected as the state re-establishes requirements for able-bodied adult Hoosiers who do not have dependents. The requirements for those SNAP recipients kicked in July 1. SNAP recipients stand to lose benefits if they fail to work on average 20 hours per week, participate in an approved employment and job training program or meet other requirements.

If the requirements aren’t met, a recipient would be limited to three months of benefits in a 36-month period.

Call Star reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter:@indystarchelsea.