Virginia’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has released this month's emergency allotments of benefits to eligible households after a delay earlier Tuesday.
Benefits were supposed to be automatically loaded to recipients’ Electronic Benefits Transfer cards on Tuesday, November 16.
On Tuesday afternoon, a representative with the Virginia Department of Social Services said they were aware of a delay of the allotments caused by a technical issue.
As of 5 p.m., the VDSS said the issue has been resolved.
VDSS released the following statement via email, saying benefits were loaded onto Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards at approximately 3 p.m.:
Unforunately, I do not have a SNAP subject matter expert available to faciliate an interview today. However, I can confirm that the delay was the result of a technical issue that has now been resolved. We also received confirmation that benefits were loaded onto Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards at approximately 3 p.m. All eligible households should now have access to these supplemental benefits. The unexpected delay in distribution impacted an estimated 370,000 households who receive the supplemental benefits on the 16th of the month.
The emergency allotments raise existing SNAP households’ monthly benefit amount to the maximum allowable based on household size as follows:
SNAP participants with questions related to their benefits are encouraged to contact their local department of social services or visit CommonHelp at commonhelp.virginia.gov to access account information.
