BOSTON, MA (December 23, 2024) – Low-income families struggling to put food on the table are a major casualty of last week’s political maneuvering to avoid a government shutdown.

Since summer 2022, thousands of Massachusetts families have had their food benefits stolen through no fault of their own due to organized card-skimming schemes. SNAP benefits are particularly vulnerable to theft because the benefit cards use a magnetic stripe instead of a chip. To make matters worse, Congress in 1996 denied SNAP families the recourse available to other cardholders whose funds are stolen.

In December 2022, Congress directed states to replace most stolen SNAP with federal funds. Since then, the Massachusetts SNAP agency, the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), has issued approximately $10 million federal dollars to replace stolen SNAP for about 21,000 households.

The federal mandate to replace stolen benefits expired on December 20, 2024. Congress extended federal replacement in the bipartisan Continuing Resolution bill Congress released on December 17, but did not include it in the final, stripped-down bill.

This means the federal government will not replace SNAP benefits stolen on or after December 21, 2024. Unless Massachusetts steps up to fill the gap, thousands of Massachusetts families will not be able to put food on the table when their benefits are stolen through no fault of the household.

“We cannot ask our neighbors who can least afford it to suffer at the hands of sophisticated criminal rings,” said Vicky Negus, policy advocate at MLRI. “Massachusetts previously stepped up to replace stolen SNAP that was not covered by federal rules for replacement. Without additional state relief now, families will go hungry. Massachusetts must not stand by and leave victimized families out in the cold.”

In addition, the Healey Administration and the Legislature should act quickly to provide funding to issue families chip/tap SNAP EBT cards. Chip/tap technology is the best tool for systemic protection in today’s marketplace. However, the transition to chip/tap will take months if not years. It is not a substitute for replacing stolen benefits now.

Households should continue to report theft to DTA. For more information on reporting and available tools to reduce benefit theft visit: Mass.gov/ProtectYourEBT.

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Contacts:

Vicky Negus
vnegus@mlri.org | 857.241.1723

Betsy Gwin
bgwin@mlri.org | 857.241.1724

Deborah Harris
dharris@mlri.org | 857.241.1725