EDITOR'S NOTE: SNAP and EBT card outages left millions of people in Massachusetts and South Carolina unable to pay for food at retail stores. Tech glitches and system failures do happen from time to time, and in some cases, the workarounds entail a certain degree of delay. But this does serve as yet another warning for the risks of a larger-scale and federally-centralized money system, such as the kind that the Federal Reserve is working on: namely, central bank digital currencies. Tech failures affecting systems across the nation will invariably cause a little bit of chaos if people can’t spend or make payments on time. But that’s the obvious danger. What if the government were to begin implementing social credits, like the kind of system that’s operational in China? What if the Fed and the government gained enough control over the country’s financial system to shut off individuals’ access to their own private (now “public”) funds as a punitive measure? This is the real risk and the real warning of the much smaller instance detailed in the article you’re about to read. If anything, this supports the cases for physical gold and silver, especially in an environment in which all physical fiat currencies have been scrubbed from the system.
The South Carolina Department of Social Services said issue was due to vendor outage.
A nationwide outage was reported on Sunday with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, leaving more than a million people without the ability to use their Electronic Benefits Transfer cards to make payments at retail stores.
Agencies in Massachusets and South Carolina reported on Sunday that customers are unable to make purchases with their EBT cards.
The South Carolina Department of Social Services tweeted Sunday that it is aware of processing issues of EBT cards due to "a third party processor outage impacting programs in multiple states."
DSS is aware of EBT processing issues with approved retailers, impacting the ability for clients to use their EBT cards, due to a third party processor outage impacting programs in multiple states.
— SC Social Services (@SC_DSS) August 28, 2022
The third party processor is gradually restoring all services, and we will communicate when all statewide services have been restored for our clients.
— SC Social Services (@SC_DSS) August 28, 2022
The department later tweeted that all systems were restored, resolving the processing issues.
The Massachusets Department of Transitional Assistance also said in a tweet that EBT card processing in the state was affected but later said that the issue was resolved.
DTA has been informed by the state’s EBT vendor that the EBT system is currently down in Massachusetts & some other states. You will not be able to use your EBT card or check your real time balance at this time. However, retailers may be able to manually authorize your purchase.
— Mass. Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) (@DTA_Listens) August 28, 2022
DTA has been informed by the state’s EBT vendor that the EBT system is currently back up and running. The agency will continue to monitor the system.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
— Mass. Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) (@DTA_Listens) August 28, 2022
DownDetector reported a substantial increase in EBT card outages on Sunday morning and early afternoon, but they decreased throughout the afternoon.
