PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Some Virginians eligible for hundreds of dollars in Pandemic-EBT benefits that were scheduled to go out on August 25 have not received them yet.
The P-EBT one-time summer payments are $391 per eligible student, and are supposed to be uploaded retroactively on previously issued P-EBT or SNAP EBT cards. The benefits are available for all school-age children who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals during the 2021-2022 school year, or who attended a school approved to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision.
This new round of benefits is expected to be roughly $276 million in total assistance to more than 700,000 Virginia students.
The Virginia Department of Social Services has acknowledged the issue and says they are “actively investigating these concerns and working urgently to issue benefits to all eligible households.”
In the meantime, Social Services has asked those who haven’t gotten their benefits to limit calls to the P-EBT Call Center to help reduce wait times.
“We thank you for your patience and will provide updates as quickly as possible,” Social Services wrote on Facebook.
This is the result of an unforeseen processing issue that we are actively working to rectify with the state vendor. We understand that this delay has been frustrating and want to assure you that we are working with our partners to distribute benefits to remaining families as quickly as possible. Our vendor will continue to issue P-EBT cards on a daily basis until all eligible households have received them.
Virginia Department of Social Services
VDSS’s Associate Director of Benefit Programs Jen Cooper said last week the summer payments were just going out because it took time to obtain approval and operationalize the program.
“I believe we worked as fast as we could given our current limitations and the approval process,” Cooper said.
VDSS says to check for updates at PebtVa.com.
For more information on the benefits, check out our story from last week.
If you haven’t gotten your benefits yet, let WAVY know through our Report It! page.
This issue is not impacting benefits to SNAP households.