On Thursday, September 26, 2024, President Biden signed a continuing resolution to keep the government open until late December. We applaud the resolution’s continuation of federal replacement for SNAP benefits stolen through December 20, 2024. We are grateful to our Massachusetts delegation, particularly Congressman Jim McGovern, for their leadership in Congress and focus on this critical issue.

SNAP theft continues to harm Massachusetts families. Since summer 2022, thousands of families have had their food benefits stolen through no fault of their own due to organized card-skimming schemes and other types of electronic theft. As of June 2024, the Massachusetts SNAP agency, the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), had used federal dollars to replace about $7 million in stolen SNAP benefits for about 15,500 households.

We agree with Congressman McGovern — demonizing SNAP families is “disgusting.” And because the federal government does not provide adequate protections to SNAP households — including the lack of chip/tap technology on EBT cards — highly sophisticated criminal rings continue to target SNAP. Theft of SNAP benefits is often catastrophic for very low-income families who use SNAP to feed their families.

EBT cardholders should have the same consumer protections as all other consumers. Chip/tap technology is the best tool for systemic protection in today’s marketplace against skimming theft. MLRI urges the Healey Administration and DTA to implement chip/tap EBT cards as quickly and as equitably as possible. Long term, the federal government must also ensure EBT card technology keeps pace with industry standards to protect against theft.

Because chip/tap EBT cards will not be implemented in Massachusetts before December 20th, the availability of ongoing replacement is critically important. Moreover, while chip/tap EBT cards would drastically reduce instances of skimming, SNAP consumers are still at risk of other types of electronic theft and should be able to readily access replacement benefits if they are stolen from. Congress must make replacement of stolen SNAP permanent.

MLRI will continue advocating for both replacement and systemic solutions that protect SNAP families in the checkout line.

For more information from DTA on benefit theft and replacement, visit: Mass.gov/ProtectYourEBT.

Contacts:

Vicky Negus
vnegus@mlri.org | 857.241.1723

Betsy Gwin
bgwin@mlri.org | 518.339.2183

Deborah Harris
dharris@mlri.org | 617.538.1680