Food stamp users will be given the choice of paper or plastic twice when grocery shopping.
Electronic Benefit Transfer program uses a plastic card, similar to a debit card, instead of food stamps. When a recipient uses the card, a federal account transfers benefits to a retailer account to pay for the products. The cards will work like a debit or bank card.
The system was part of the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A federally required program that requires that all states convert to it by October 2002.
“It is convenient, safe, more secure and nondiscriminatory,” said Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the Family Independence Agency, which handles the distribution of welfare benefits.
The food stamp cards were developed in part to stop food stamps from being used fraudulently.
According to the USDA, the cards allow a record to be made of what was bought. Before the system, recipients could easily trade food stamps for illegal goods.
Items such as hot foods, pet foods, tobacco products and alcohol are just some items that can’t be purchased with food stamps.
Sorbet said households used to rely on the U.S. Postal Service for the agency’s authorization for benefits and checks. With the new program, recipients no longer have to wait for it to arrive or worry about it getting lost in the mail.
“In my opinion, it is a 21st-century way of delivering benefits,” she said.
Sorbet said the program also benefits retailers because they don’t have to handle food stamps.
Meijer, 2055 W. Grand River Ave. in Okemos, has had a positive experience with the system.
“It is speeding up the check lanes and plus you don’t have to stand there and count out food stamps,” Meijer service team leader Vickie Atallah said.
While more than 30 states use the system, only 41 counties in Michigan use the new program - Ingham County being one of them.
Jerry Ambrose, a controller for Ingham County, said the federal government also wants child support enforcement to become a unified state program.
“The system we have as a county is better than the state system that is being forced on the counties,” Ambrose said.
