Deadline approaching for P-EBT address verification

South Carolina Department of Social Services has a message for parents whose children received free or reduced price meals during the 2022-2023 school year. 

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) –  South Carolina Department of Social Services has a message for parents whose children received free or reduced price meals during the 2022-2023 school year. 

According to DSS, this will likely be the last round of the Pandemic EBT which is federally funded and administered by the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education. Connelly Anne Ragley with DSS says there are 520,000 children in the state that are eligible for P-EBT assistance because they qualified for free or reduced price meals for the 2022 – 2023 school year. She is reminding parents to verify the address of every eligible child in the household. 

“It is a one time payment of $120 per child so for example, if you have three children who are eligible and living in your house hold you will receive 3 separate cards,” says Ragley. 

Go to dss.sc.gov to verify your address. So far 71,000 addresses have been verified. 

Ragley says she has heard from families who need help putting food on the table. “We know that you’re not going to be able to feed a child for an entire summer on $120 but its $120 that you didn’t have.”

 Parents of eligible children should verify their address by 5 p.m. on August 10th to help minimize delays. Cards will be sent out mid-September.

Last year when DSS issued P-EBT there were thousands of cards returned to the agency for bad addresses says Ragley. “We don’t want to spend unneeded funds replacing cards that are lost or replacing cards that are sent to bad addresses. We want to be the best stewards of taxpayers dollars and taxpayer resources.”

If a parent cannot find their child’s name in the P- EBT portal, Ragley says to contact your child’s school or district to ensure that they were eligible to receive free or reduced meals.