LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A temporary shutdown of the Electronic Benefits Transfer system for food stamp recipients in California and 16 other states is due to a system issue, not the federal government shutdown, officials said Saturday.
The outage affects those who receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, program, according to Xerox, the company responsible for the system.
On Saturday EBT users noticed that their cards were not working. Xerox said it was the result of a temporary system outage.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based company reported, “During a routine test of our back-up systems Saturday morning, Xerox’s Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system experienced a temporary shutdown. 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.”
The company did not give an estimated time for having the system restored.
“Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon,” the statement continued. “Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients’ patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible.”
That message was slow in getting out to merchants and customers who were dealing with the fallout of the system glitch on Saturday.
Deana Parlet, who along with husband Kenny owns and operates Lakeview Supermarket and Deli, said a number of their customers who use EBT cards were unable to access their benefits on Saturday due to the outage.
“Everyone is panicking,” she said, noting that customers as well as checkers trying to help them were reacting to the issue.
Due to the shutdown, the store wasn't able to get any answers from government officials while, at the same time, trying to reassure customers not to panic, Parlet said.
The Lakeport Safeway also confirmed that its EBT machines were down, with no estimated time of restoration given.
A store spokesperson said they had been calling hourly to get updates on when the system might be restored, and also were getting calls from stores in other counties with concerns about the issue.
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