ALERT: EBT System Down
EBT benefits system down across Atlanta
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The electronic system that allows millions of welfare recipients to buy food with payment cards went down across Georgia and other states Saturday.
The Electronic Benefits Transfer system – which allows low-income people to spend their Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program benefits – was not working in Alabama, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Virginia as well, according to news reports.
About 1.9 million Georgians were participating in the SNAP program as of June, according to the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on eliminating hunger.
State and federal officials could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon. But NBC4 in Washington, D.C., quoted a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Human Resources saying a Xerox facility that handles the card transactions had experienced a power outage.
The outage caused the cards to be rejected, NBC4 reported.
“It is not just Kroger,” said Kroger spokesman Glynn Jenkins. “In metro Atlanta, it doesn’t matter what retailer you are – the system is down.”
Publix also reported troubles Saturday.
“We are experiencing a problem processing EBT for Alabama- and Georgia-issued cards,” Brenda Reid, a media and community relations manager for Publix Super Markets, said in an email.
“Our information systems team is actively working to correct the problem.”
More.
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