About 28,000 Virgin Islanders receiving federal Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program food stamp benefits or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits were left in the lurch Wednesday, expecting to be able to go shopping but finding no money in their accounts.
TANF and SNAP benefits are loaded onto debit cards by the Electronic Benefit Transfer or EBT system on the first day of each month.
As of April, 27,276 Virgin Islanders collected SNAP benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department’s data is unclear on whether that includes special disaster-related D-SNAP benefits extended to many in the territory after last year’s hurricanes.
According to the department, an average of 804 Virgin Islanders collected TANF benefits each month in 2016, and 651 in 2017.
Wednesday, V.I. Department of Human Services spokesperson Carol Burke said the problem was a “system glitch.” She said the “contractor is trouble-shooting and benefits should be uploaded to EBT cards tomorrow.”
V.I. grocery store lines may be long Thursday as beneficiaries get their shopping in.