9093.9 Aging Periods and Expungement Process 7 CFR 274.2(h)(2)

Benefits remain available to the household for 365 days from the date of availability. The EBT contractor sends reports to DHSS that show accounts with no activity. The EBT contractor provides DHSS with a report for the following periods of time: ·Period 1: 60 days ·Period 2: 90 days ·Period 3: 230 days ·Period 4: 365 days A household will get a notice at Periods 1, 2 and 3 if the household has not used benefits for 60, 90 or 230 days. Stale benefits are benefits not used by these time periods. The notice will tell the household the following information: ·The account has not been used in the past 60, 90 or 230 days ·To call the EBT contractor customer service unit to get the balance on the account ·Stale food benefits not used for 230 days can be applied to any existing claim with the client’s permission ·Food benefits that are not used by day 365 will be removed from the account forever ·Food benefits removed from the account on day 365 will be applied to any remaining food benefit claim On day 230, DHSS will generate notices to clients with outstanding claims. The notice tells the household that ARMS will apply benefits not used for 230 days to the outstanding claim unless the household contacts ARMS within 10 days. On day 250, households that do not contact ARMS to stop the repayment will have their stale benefits applied to the outstanding claim. On day 365, the EBT contractor system will expunge (remove from the account) any remaining stale benefits and send DHSS a report of those benefits expunged. DCIS II and ARMS accounting systems will credit any expunged benefits to household accounts with an outstanding claim. ARMS and the Payments Unit will receive a report of benefits posted to household’s claims so ARMS can update the benefit recovery screens. ARMS will send the client a credit slip indicating the credit made on his or her claim and the existing balance. 12 DE Reg. 1092 (02/01/09) 15 DE Reg. 1030 (01/01/12)