MFIP:

Cash benefits are cancelled if not accessed within 90 days of issuance. Cancelled benefits may be replaced for up to 1 year from the initial date of issuance. After 1 year, benefits are expunged and cannot be replaced. For additional information, see TE16.03 (EBT – Aging of Benefits).

For the MFIP-food portion, follow SNAP provisions.

GA, MSA

Cash benefits are cancelled if not accessed within 90 days. Cancelled benefits may be replaced for up to 1 year from the initial date of issuance. After 1 year, benefits are expunged and cannot be replaced. For additional information, see TE16.03 (EBT- Aging of Benefits).

HSP:

No provisions.

SNAP

Food benefits issued to via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) account are spent on a first-in-first-out basis. As a result, the oldest benefits are used first.

Inactive EBT accounts

Benefit allotments, or a portion thereof, will be expunged from EBT accounts that have been inactive for a period of nine months (274 days). When the oldest benefit allotment has not been accessed from the household for nine months, the benefit will be expunged from the EBT account at the benefit allotment level as each benefit allotment ages to nine months since the date of issuance or since the last date of account activity, whichever is later.

If at any time after the expungement process begins, the household initiates activity affecting the balance of the account, expungement of benefits from the account will stop and the account aging process will start over again for the remaining benefits.

45 days before benefit expungement a notice is issued to the household notifying them that benefits in their EBT account are approaching expungement due to nonuse. See TE16.03 (EBT-Aging of Benefits) for system instructions.

Once benefits are expunged from an EBT account they cannot be replaced.

Deceased Unit Members

When all eligible household members are deceased and the food program (SNAP and/or MFIP food) is closed, any remaining food benefits in the EBT account will be expunged. Expungement notices are not required for these households. See TE02.08.008 (Closing MAXIS and MMIS Due to Death) for instructions.

Validation of a unit member(s) death is only required if information is received via Eligibility Notification/Deceased Individual (ENDI) match. Validate the death through a collateral contact, including but not limited to, alternate representative, authorized representative, a family member, or newspaper. Case note the source of information and place a copy of any related documents in the case file. See TE02.12.17 (ENDI Interface) for instructions.