Columbia, South Carolina – In South Carolina, millions of dollars in unused food benefits from the pandemic era are set to start expiring in May. These funds, referred to as the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer or P-EBT, were distributed in several stages to thousands of families with children in public schools over the last four years, aiming to offset the cost of meals typically provided at schools.
Each card is loaded with $120 per child and can be used at any grocery store that accepts SNAP debit cards. Children who qualified for free or discounted school meals at the end of the 2022-2023 school year are eligible to use these benefits. The P-EBT cards automatically expire 274 days, or roughly nine months, after their last usage. For cards first issued on August 14, 2023, the expiration date is May 14.
To extend the expiration, families can make a purchase of at least $1, which will reset the expiration period to another 274 days. The P-EBT program is managed together by the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the State Department of Education in South Carolina. The Department of Social Services reports that over 68,000 cards have not been activated yet, leaving about $8.1 million in benefits unclaimed.
Sue Berkowitz from the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center explained that there are a few reasons why the P-EBT funds remain unspent. Some families may have lost their cards, others might not want the assistance, or they could be confused about what they received in the mail. Additionally, some cards were possibly sent to incorrect addresses. To address this, the Department of Social Services (DSS) regularly opened an Address Verification portal on its website for a few weeks during each round of P-EBT, encouraging people to confirm their details.
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Cards that were undeliverable were sent back to the contracted vendor for processing. Over the past four years, a total of 8,435 cards were reissued, as per DSS records. The State Department of Education has been proactive, sending memorandums to school districts and using social media to spread awareness about the program. They also conducted a webinar for school administrators to discuss P-EBT details.
Many schools individually reached out to parents to inform them about the P-EBT benefits. Overall, 2.26 million cards, totaling $1.04 billion in grocery assistance, have been distributed to South Carolina families, with 90% of these cards being activated, based on DSS statistics. More details about the program are available on the Department of Social Services’ website.
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