Narcotic addicts or alcoholics who reside at a
facility, treatment center or certain mental health centers for the
purpose of regular participation in a drug addiction or alcoholism
treatment and/or rehabilitation program must be certified using an
authorized representative (AR) who is an employee of the center.
The AR is the only person who can access the food
stamp benefits while the customer is a resident of the facility. An
EBT card will be issued to the resident. See FSC 981.3
for instructions. Once the client leaves the facility, the county
office must be so notified immediately. The county office must then
take action to remove the center employee as the client's authorized
representative, and the center must give the EBT card and PIN to the
resident upon departure or must destroy it.
The center may install a point of sale (POS) device
to allow the AR to access the EBT benefits. Before a point of sale
device may be installed, the facility must be approved by the USDA,
Food and Nutrition Service, as an authorized food retailer. See FSC 980.
When a client leaves a treatment center that
utilizes a POS device and is entitled to part of their benefits as
explained in FSC 981.5,
the facility will do a food stamp purchase refund. This will debit the
center's daily transactions and credit the client's food stamp benefit
account.
Another way for the facility to access the food
stamp benefits is to determine a prorated daily amount based on that
individual's food stamp benefit amount. The facility will then swipe
the card each week or every other week based on the cost of the
client's meals for that period.
Centers not approved by Food and Nutrition Service
must shop with the individual cards. In these centers, the ARs must
carefully monitor the use of the cards to insure that one-half of the
regular monthly benefits are left in the client's account until the
16th of the month.
