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TANF POLICY MANUAL

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Chapter 11 Benefit Issuance Procedures

11.1 Benefit Issuance TANF benefits may be issued in the form of a check or electronically into a payment account. Recipients that are subject to electronic issuance must have specific demographic information available on CHIP for the Primary Informant (PI). If the demographic information is not available for the PI, the recipient will be issued a check.

1. Required Demographic Information for Electronic Payments The following information is needed by the vendor, Conduent, to establish debit accounts: A. PI’s name B. PI’s SSN C. PI’s mailing and/or residence address D. PI’s date of birth

2. Identifying Benefit Issuance Workers will be able to identify the benefit issuance method by reviewing the warrant number on the AFDC Issuance History (AFIH) screen on CHIP. If the warrant number starts with a “C”, the benefit was issued to the Electronic Payment Card (EPC). An EPC is a debit card issued and maintained by a third-party brand.

11.2 Electronic Benefit Issuance An EPC will be setup as the payment method for TANF recipients when required demographic information is available in the CHIP system. (See 11.1). The debit account is called ePAY. Benefits will be deposited monthly into the debit account for eligible recipients. The only deposits allowed in the ePAY accounts are funds deposited electronically by DSS. A debit card will be issued and must be used to access funds deposited into the ePAY account. These ePAY deposit accounts are governed by the FDIC banking regulations.

Chapter 11