Welfare benefits in Southeast Missouri will enter the electronics age when Electronic Benefits Transfer cards replace paper welfare checks and food stamps next month.

Nearly 29,000 southeast Missourians receiving food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families will obtain their benefits using the EBT card beginning Monday. The new system is available to recipients in the counties of Perry, Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Crawford, Dent, Washington, Iron, Reynolds, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve.

The Cape Girardeau Division of Family Services office next week will begin training people on how to use their cards. Training will take place at the Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope, on Sept. 3, 5 and 9. All sessions begin at 10 a.m.

Linda Jones, DFS income maintenance supervisor, said some 2,100 people in Cape Girardeau County receive food stamps and 500 get cash benefits from the state.

The changeover from paper to plastic was mandated by the federal welfare reform law that went into effect last year. The law requires all states to implement EBT for food stamps by 2002.

Retailers and banks participating in the new food stamp program will have free access to machines and software similar to those used at Automated Teller Machines, said Melba Price, associate director of the Missouri Department of Social Services in Jefferson City. Those participating commercially in the cash-benefits program will buy their own equipment and receive a 30-cent rebate for each transaction, she said.

Price said Missouri was already developing an electronic transfer program before the federal mandate. The state joined the Quest network and helped develop what is becoming a national standard for the EBT program, she said.

The Quest symbol alerts welfare recipients that their EBT card is accepted by a merchant or bank. Quest will make it easier for merchants and EBT cardholders to conduct business, and the system will help state and federal regulators detect fraud patterns of use by retailers and recipients.

Southern Illinois EBT cardholders won't be able to use their cards in Missouri, Price said. Missouri has eight bordering states, but only Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee use the Quest system. Missouri officials are working with the bordering states not using the Quest network so that residents of those states can continue to use stores in neighboring states.

"Every Quest card acts alike, and so far 28 states are committed to using Quest, so we finally have some kind of standard," said Price. "Some states like Illinois enacted their EBT program before the Quest standard came along, so it's a matter of timing."

Dennis Marchi, general manager of Schnuck's, 19 S. Kingshighway, said the program will help shorten time spent in checkout lanes and reduce food stamp fraud. The program won't be difficult to use because it will be similar to credit card purchases and automatic debit systems already in use at the store, he said.

"For us, it's not much different than taking MasterCard or debit cards," he said. It'll help the lengths of the lines, and there's no guesswork with the checkers about whether an item is food stamp eligible. It's already in our system, so either it is or it isn't."

(Wednesday: Cost of the EBT system to retailers and its effects on them.)