Food Stamps to Cash

[zzapp the witch]

The boyfriend observed this the other day at the store down the road. The cashier rang up an 8 dollar charge on the Oregon Trail card (my state's food stamps), ran the card, and popped the drawer to give the customer 8 dollars cash.

He asks me, "Isn't that illegal?" I'm pretty sure its not (haven't had a lot to do with food stamps, and what severity of illegal is it?

[Aethian]

Get cash from your cash benefits
when you make a purchase. (You will
not be charged a extra fee for this.);

Get cash from your cash benefits
without making a purchase. (Some
stores may limit the amount of cash
you can get. There is a fee if you get
cash without a purchase more than
two times a month.)

Out of the brochure for the card so...I dunno.

[zzapp the witch]

Well, then, that answers that.

[Draco]

I don't know about the Oregon card, but the Pennsylvania ones have EBT Food Stamps (traditional, food-only, no cash back) and EBT Cash (which functions like a debit card, in theory to help them make payments on important bills. In practice, cigarette money).

"cash benefits" sound like they'd be our EBT Cash.

[Merriweather]

From my understanding, there are two types of benefits, and they can both go onto the Oregon Trail card. Food stamp benefits are for food purchases only, period. If you qualify and receive other benefits normally paid in cash, then they go on the card as well, and you can use them to pay for things or get cash. So that was legal if he had cash benefits on the card, but not if he only gets food stamp benefits.

As I said, that's my understanding, I could be wrong, I'm just learning. After having lived several years in Orgeon, seeing references to the Oregon Trail card, and not having a clue what it was, I've recently found out the hard way (hubby has been out of work long enough for unemployment benefits to run out, so we now qualify for a princely total of $80 a month in food stamps). Anyone know of any jobs for someone with over 20 years experience in logistics?

[Food Lady]

I was getting $157, then it went up to $158, then was cancelled. The option for cash shows up, but I'm not (or was not, rather) entitled to it.

[suburbandecay]

Anyone know of any jobs for someone with over 20 years experience in logistics?

I would suggest looking into management, project management, or industrial engineering for the big shipping companies. The job is pretty much a giant exercise in logistics no matter what position you hold. If you're in or near a major city there should be several facilities for all the major carriers in the area.

[Andara Bledin]

I was going to suggest a freight company or somebody in the transportation industry.

I did a 6-month temp gig for a transportation company with a contract with Disney who could have benefited from an actual logistics manager instead of dumping the stuff on the temp girl who'd only been there for only half a year and had never been trained to run the department.

^-.-^

[NotMyProblem]

Has he looked into federal jobs? (tho some places may be on a hiring freeze)

http://www.usajobs.gov/

[MrSunshineState]

Yeah, I know here in Florida, there is a cash back option as well. The cash benefit is usually a small percentage of the actual benefit (much like how credit cards have a cash limit lower than the credit limit) that way people can get things like diapers, soap, deodorant, and whatever else they need that isn't a food item.

[MadMike]

I know when I was still working at the supermarket, and food stamps were still paper, we could only give the change in cash if it was under a dollar. If it was over a dollar, we had to give it back in food stamps.

Now that it's all electronic, I have no idea.

[EricKei]

I can only speak for Louisiana food stamp cards, and I would presume that most states do it a similar way:

- If you receive cash benefits AND food benefits on the card, you can get cash back

- If you receive ONLY food benefits, getting cash back should be impossible (blocked by the system), and "gaming" the system in order to get cash for food purchased is illegal, as well (part of why we have cards now, rather than actual stamps)

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I know when I was still working at the supermarket, and food stamps were still paper, we could only give the change in cash if it was under a dollar. If it was over a dollar, we had to give it back in food stamps.

Now that it's all electronic, I have no idea.

What we do down here if there's a refund and it was done on a EBT card, it's put back onto the EBT card.

We don't have the EBT cash option here in NC, only food stamps. So anything that's left over on the card after it's swiped and the amount of purchase is deducted stays on the card until the user makes another purchase. Our receipts will print the remaining balance at the bottom of the transaction to clearly show the user how much they have left to use on their card until the next month.