SR 10-23 Dated 10/10

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

DFA SIGNATURE DATE:	October 7, 2010
FROM:	OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, DFA Terry R. Smith
AT (OFFICE):	Division of Family Assistance
TO:	DFA Supervisors
SUBJECT:	Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Centralized Card Issuance (CCI): EBT Cards Will Now be Created by the EBT Contractor and Distributed to Food Stamp and Cash Assistance Recipients Via the Mail
EFFECTIVE DATE:	October 12, 2010

SUMMARY

This SR releases a procedural change in the current process for creating and distributing Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to recipients of Food Stamp benefits and those recipients of financial assistance who receive their cash assistance payments through the EBT system. EBT cards will no longer be created by New HEIGHTS and recipients will no longer be required to retrieve their EBT cards from the District Office (DO). Instead, EBT cards will now be created by the EBT contractor and most EBT cards will now be mailed directly to recipients after the cards are created by the EBT contractor. This new method of EBT card issuance is called centralized card issuance (CCI). The last day the EBT cards will be processed in the old manner and sent to the DO will be October 11, 2010.

Due to the changes described in this SR, the following documents are no longer in use as of the release of this SR:

· the JP Morgan Chase & Co (EBT Contractor)-issued pamphlet, How to use your New Hampshire Electronic Benefits Card; and

· the New Height-generated client letter BI0007, Electronic Benefit Transfer.

The information that was formerly contained in the above documents will now be provided in the EBT contractor documentation included with the mailed EBT cards.

FORMER POLICY	NEW POLICY
Most Food Stamp recipients as well as financial assistance recipients who received their cash payments through the EBT system, were required to travel to the District Office to physically retrieve their EBT card, after the cards were created by New HEIGHTS.	With the new CCI process, EBT cards will now be mailed to recipients after the cards are created by the EBT contractor. Physical retrieval of the EBT card at the District Office is no longer required.
Clients were required to go to the District Office to select a personal identification number (PIN) for their EBT card.	Clients will now go to www.ebtedge.com or call 888-997-9777 to select a PIN for their EBT card.

POLICY

With Centralized Card Issuance (CCI), the EBT contractor will now create and generate all Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. The EBT cards will then be mailed to each Food Stamp recipient and financial assistance recipient who receives their cash payments through the EBT system. Recipients are no longer required to retrieve their EBT cards from the District Office (DO).

Although most cards will be mailed to recipients, some individuals may request that their cards be redirected to the DO for physical pick-up. Some examples of recipients who may request that their cards be redirected to the DO are homeless individuals (see special instructions for homeless households below) and recipients living in shelters that do not accept mail (such as Domestic Violence shelters).

The new CCI method of EBT card issuance resulted in several procedural changes, summarized below:

· Once produced, the EBT cards will be shipped by the EBT contractor to the Data Management Unit (DMU), located at the Brown Building, State Office Park South, Concord.

· Using the New HEIGHTS-generated report EBTCRDNH, EBT Card Order Files, DMU will inventory the EBT cards received from the EBT contractor and pull out the EBT cards which have been redirected to the DO for a personal pick up. DMU will then:

- mail the redirected cards via a secure pouch to the local District Office associated with the cardholder’s mailing address; and

- mail the remaining EBT cards to the EBT cardholders’ mailing address via the Brown Building Mailroom.

The return address on the mailed EBT card envelope will be DMU, Brown Building.

Returned Mail

For EBT cards mailed out from the Brown Building but then returned to the DMU due to an issue with the EBT cardholder’s mailing address, DMU will do the following:

· For returned envelopes displaying an official yellow USPS sticker indicating a forwarding address, DMU will resend the EBT card to the household using the forwarding address provided on the official USPS sticker. DMU will then send the original envelope containing the yellow USPS sticker to the New Heights Centralized Scanning Unit (CSU) to be scanned into the computer. The CSU will then:

- update the mailing address for the case;

- request further information from the household about their new residence, if needed; and

- enter an expected change.

This will be done for all offices. For those offices that are a non-imaging DO, the supervisors need to check the Dashboard to review the Document In-Box section.

· For returned envelopes without an official yellow USPS sticker indicating a forwarding address, DMU will send an email to the FSS and DO administrative supervisor informing them that the EBT card was returned to the DMU with no forwarding address and that the DMU has the card in their possession. If the FSS is able to obtain proof of the new address and continued eligibility, if needed, DMU will remail the card to the verified new address. However, if no information is provided, DMU will destroy the EBT card on the 31st day after receiving the returned EBT card, noting the action on the EBTCRDNH report, and then will notify the EBT Unit at State Office to deactivate the EBT card number.

The following chart further describes the process changes resulting from the new CCI process:

FORMER EBT CARD ISSUANCE PROCESS	NEW CCI PROCESS
When a new EBT account was established on the EBT contractor’s Edge System: · The initial card was batched via a file to New Heights and added to the list of replacement (Administrator-Issued) cards that were issued the same day. · The EBT contractor then batched the card file back to New HEIGHTS for State processing. · Once the file reached New Heights, it was modified to create the EBTCRDNH, EBT Card Order Files, report. This report was broken into 4 sections: 1. NB1640RZ: this report listed the control totals of the number of cards produced, and of those cards produced, how many were a result of cards requested by New HEIGHTS (Batch), and how many were requested directly through the EDGE system (Admin). 2. NB1641RA: this report listed the cards issued from the Admin Terminal. 3. NB1642RA: this report listed the cards issued from Batch. 4. NB1643RA: this report listed cards that exceptioned out. This report contained the following information: DO, Recipient Identification Number (RID), Record Type, and Cardholder Name. · An automated Information Technology (IT) system loaded the file onto a server and the EBT Embossing software embossed the EBT cards.	All EBT cards will be produced by the EBT contractor then shipped to the Brown Building where DMU will inventory and sort them. New HEIGHTS will no longer post the EBT card file for IT to emboss the cards. However, New HEIGHTS will still create the EBTCRDNH report and the report will still be broken into 4 sections, but the information contained in 2 of the 4 sub-reports has changed: 1. NB1641RA: this report will now list the cards that have been redirected to the DO and will be the report DMU sends with the cards that are mailed via secured pouch to the DOs. This report will contain the following information: DO, RID, Card #, Cardholder Name, and Cardholder Address. 2. NB1642RA: this report will now list the cards that will be mailed to the EBT cardholder’s mailing address directly from DMU, and will contain the following information: DO, RID, Card #, Cardholder Name, and Cardholder Mailing Address. 3. NB1640RZ & NB1643RA: these reports will remain unchanged.
Once the EBT cards were embossed, DMU separated the cards by office inventory sheet and directed all EBT cards to the DO via a secured pouch for client pick-up at the DO.	DMU will first pull any EBT cards listed on the NB1641RA report. These redirected EBT cards will go to the DO via a secured pouch. DMU will then mail the EBT cards listed on the NB1642RA report to the EBT cardholders’ mailing address.
All cards on the NB1641RA report were placed in a safe until the next business day when DMU received the New Heights generated EBT card mail out letters. DMU then collated and mailed these cards and letters to the EBT cardholder’s mailing address.	This process has been eliminated.
All cards on the NB1642RA report were maintained at the DO for 30 days, and then the EBT cards were destroyed if not retrieved by the EBT cardholder.	This process will remain unchanged for the redirected cards listed on the NB1641RA report that DMU sends to the DO. These redirected cards are maintained at the DO for 30 days. After 30 days, the cards will be deactivated at the DO and sent back to the DMU for destruction.
The Healthy Kids District Office (CHK DO) had a special EBT card issuance method for the Food Stamps cases the HK staff are now processing.	CHK DO cards will be included in this new CCI process. Redirected cards for the CHK DO will be placed on the NB1641RA report under the local DO associated with the cardholder’s mailing address, just as batch cards are handled currently. All other EBT cards associated with the CHK DO will be mailed to the cardholder’s mailing address.

DISTRICT OFFICE, DATA MANAGEMENT, AND NEW HEIGHTS SYSTEMS PROCEDURES AND IMPLEMENTATION

As of October 12, 2010, EBT cards will be created by the EBT contractor, and the following will be implemented:

· when the card file is received from the EBT contractor, New HEIGHTS will continue to generate the EBTCRDNH, EBT Card Order Files. DMU will use that report to determine which cards will need to be pulled from the EBT card inventory received from the EBT contractor to be redirected to the DO, and which cards will be mailed directly to the cardholder’s mailing address.

· the New HEIGHTS-generated client letter BI0007, Electronic Benefit Transfer, will be discontinued.

Additionally, text on the Notice of Decision generated when the client opens for Food Stamps or must receive cash benefits via the EBT system, has been altered to better explain the CCI process to clients.

Special Procedures for Homeless Households

When an applicant identifies themselves as homeless or has no mailing address or residential address, EBT cards need to be redirected to the DO. FSS must:

· complete the residential address on the "Household Information" screen in New HEIGHTS as "homeless;"

· enter the DO’s mailing address as the mailing address for the household; and

· enter the DO’s name into the "Care-Of" field on the screen.

When reviewing the EBTCRDNH report, DMU will then pull any EBT cards with a "Care-Of" field identified as the DO so the cards are redirected to the DO via the secured pouch.

Special DMU Card Inventory Procedures

DMU will use the following procedures for EBT cards that have been returned to the DMU due to issues with the EBT cardholder’s mailing address:

- update the mailing address for the case;

- request further information from the household about their new residence, if needed; and

- enter an expected change.

This will be done for all offices. For those offices that are a non-imaging DO, the supervisors need to check the Dashboard to review the Document In-Box section.

District Office Card Inventory Procedures:

District Office Manager of Operations (DOMOs) will:

· check the NB1641RA report included in the secured pouch with the redirected EBT cards once the pouch is received at the DO. If all cards are present, the DOMO will sign the NB1641RA report and fax it to the DMU;

· add the redirected EBT cards received to the "DO inventory list and card log" (unique to each DO);

· check the "DO inventory list and card log" daily for cards older then 30 days; and

· pull EBT cards older then 30 days from the inventory, deactivate them, and send them back to DMU with the "DO inventory list and card log" via secured pouch. DMU will then inventory, destroy, and log the EBT cards that are destroyed.

POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS

Revised Family Assistance Manual Topics

Section 303.05 How to Verify Residence

PART 707 Issuing Financial Assistance Benefits

Revised Adult Assistance Manual Topics

Section 301.05 Verification

PART 705 Issuing Benefits

Revised Food Stamp Manual Topics

Section 303.05 How to Verify Residence

PART 707 Issuing Benefits

Section 709.01 What Benefits May Be Replaced

IMPLEMENTATION

The EBT card issuance procedure identified in this SR will be implemented October 12, 2010, and will apply to all EBT card cases processed on or after that date.

CLIENT NOTIFICATION

No special client notification is planned.

TRAINING

No training is planned or needed.

DISPOSITION

This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the revised manual topics released by this SR have been posted to the On-line manuals.

DISTRIBUTION

This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for Division of Family Assistance policy releases. This SR, and revised On-Line Manuals, will be available for agency staff in the On-Line Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/DFA/publications.htm, effective November 1, 2010. Additionally, this SR, and printed pages with posting instructions, will be distributed under separate cover to all internal hard copy holders of the Family Assistance Manual, Adult Assistance Manual, and the Food Stamp Manuals.

DFA/JT:s