ENDING FOOD STAMPS; STATE WELFARE GOES TO DEBIT CARD

Beginning in November, Missouri's welfare recipients will purchase food and get cash with a debit card, doing away with food stamps and welfare checks.

The program, Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, looks to be more efficient, cost effective and secure, said Ed Bailey, the EBT project director for Missouri in Jefferson City.

The debit cards are almost identical to most credit cards in appearance and use, Bailey said. A magnetic stripe on the back of the card will hold information such as how much food can be bought and how much cash the recipient has in his or her account.

Those eligible for food will be able to use the cards at the same places that accept food stamps now. Any cash benefits can be withdrawn from banks.

What information goes on the card depends on eligibility.

As the card is used, the amount of food purchases will be deducted from the food balance and the cash withdrawals will be deducted from the cash balance. The next month, the depleted funds will be replenished with as much as the recipient is eligible for.

"First of all, it will be easy to use," Bailey said. "It's convenient. Debit cards are easy to use. Video games are more difficult."

The debit cards also offer more security for the recipients, Bailey said.

"With the food coupons, they are usable by anybody," Bailey said. "If someone loses them, they can be picked up by just anybody and they can use them."

The new cards will have a personal identification number and the card can't be used without it.

Francis Gould, director of the Missouri Division of Family Services in Cape Girardeau, said the area may not begin participation in November. "A lot of times it happens in metropolitan areas first," she said. But it shouldn't be much longer than that until it comes to Cape Girardeau, she said.

Stacy is a 24-year-old Cape Girardeau woman who gets food stamps to help feed her children while she finishes her education. She has heard of the new program and favors it.

"I think it will be much easier," she said. "Holidays cause us to get them late sometimes. Of course, it will be a hindrance to people who sell their food stamps."

And that is what the program is designed to stop.

EBT should reduce food stamp fraud, Bailey said. He said under the current program some people do sell their food coupons for cash, sometimes getting as much as 60 cents on the dollar.

"We hear horror stories about people buying cars, refrigerators and liquor with their food stamps," he said. "EBT should make that occurrence less likely."

But EBT won't put a stop to people misrepresenting their eligibility for welfare.

EBT card use will be monitored, Bailey said. A record will be made of where benefits are redeemed, which will make it easier to notice trafficking or an unusual pattern of redemption by a retailer, he said.

"For example, a red flag would go up if a small retailer turned in $70,000 in food stamps in a month," Bailey said. "It's not evidence, but it would be an indicator for us to look into it."

Maryland was the first state to go statewide with the EBT, and studies show that the clients are in favor of the program 8-to-1.

"Our intent is to feed children and those that can't take care of themselves," said Bailey. "We want to meet that intent and provide something that is secure to the client."

While technically this is a pilot program, Bailey is reluctant to call it that.

"It's not an experiment; the technology has already been proven elsewhere," he said.

Texas, parts of Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina and several other states already have switched to EBT with favorable comments.

At least 40 states plan to switch to EBT, and Bailey said every state is considering it.

Bailey said the government will save money from mailing costs and the production of food stamps.

Dennis Marchi, manager of Schnucks, 19 S. Kingshighway, said the program will be easier for all involved.