How to check P-EBT on DC's card

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amother

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 5:51 pm

I want to check if my kid got the P-EBT benefits, so I think I need to check if his Medicaid card has any balance. We are in NY state. We don't have food stamps, but he does get school lunches, as we are eligible.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to check his card! When I call, the only card number I can look up is my own. Same on my online account.

amother

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:13 pm

Bump. Anyone here got P-EBT benefits and knows how to do this?

amother

Jetblack

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:20 pm

I got another card in the mail just for P-EBT.

I am not on food stamps and my child has Medicaid.

amother

Azure

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:28 pm

My son is on Medicaid and we don’t get food stamps.
I got a Medicaid card in the mail with his name on it and a wrong date of birth.
There was a letter as to how to activate it.
I thought the letter was an advertisement and almost threw it out good thing I looked.
Did you get new card for DC with a birthdate with the year 1900?

amother

Olive

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:33 pm

You're supposed to get a separate P EBT card in the mail with a DOB of 1/1/1900. It looks like a junk mail envelope, hope you didn't throw it out by mistake.

amother

Amber

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:37 pm

I just got one in the mail. I don't get any programs usually, my kids are on child health plus (that I pay for) I was surprised. What can I use it for?? There is like $400 on it according to the phone system I called. Can I just use it in any grocery? How does it work??

soap suds

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:42 pm

amother [ Amber ] wrote:

You have to call the number on the back of the card to set up a PIN. Then you can use it in any store that accepts EBT. Grocery, health food store, even Amazon (not all food on Amazon are eligible for EBT, so make sure to check)

amother

Amber

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 8:50 pm

soap suds wrote:

I did that. Is EBT like food stamps? How do I know what is eligible? (Never had any of these things)

ra_mom

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 9:19 pm

amother [ Amber ] wrote:

I did that. Is EBT like food stamps? How do I know what is eligible? (Never had any of these things)

We got one too. All food items are eligible AFAIK. When you get to the checkout counter, the register will add up automatically what gets billed to the card, and then they'll let you know what the balance is for non food items like paper goods and detergents.

soap suds

Wed, Oct 28 2020, 9:44 pm

amother [ Amber ] wrote:

I did that. Is EBT like food stamps? How do I know what is eligible? (Never had any of these things)

Yes, it's like foodstamps. All food items are eligible.
For some reason, on Amazon, they have certain food items marked as SNAP EBT eligible while others are not. What

amother

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 12:01 am

amother [ Azure ] wrote:

amother [ Olive ] wrote:

You're supposed to get a separate P EBT card in the mail with a DOB of 1/1/1900. It looks like a junk mail envelope, hope you didn't throw it out by mistake.

Thank you! I found the card and activated it. It has $420, BH!

Now I'm wondering about the rest of my kids. We're eligible, but their school doesn't provide lunches. Is there a way to get the benefits anyway? It would really be a help.

ra_mom

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 12:35 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

It comes directly from the school's program funds.

amother

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 12:44 am

ra_mom wrote:

It comes directly from the school's program funds.

Oh, I didn't realize that. Thanks for explaining.

Hashem_Yaazor

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 5:34 pm

soap suds wrote:

Yes, it's like foodstamps. All food items are eligible.
For some reason, on Amazon, they have certain food items marked as SNAP EBT eligible while others are not. What

Different sellers I think

Hashem_Yaazor

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 5:35 pm

ra_mom wrote:

It comes directly from the school's program funds.

Not really... The school won't be paid for those days but they don't allocate money in the beginning of the year for each school and then shifted it...

But the school needs to report who would have gotten school lunch free or reduced and now can't. This is to make up for that.

TwinsMommy

Thu, Oct 29 2020, 11:59 pm

I have two kids (in Ohio). One in a public school in a poor district where they provide free breakfast and lunch to all (except my kid because she keeps kosher-- lol). She qualified for the P-EBT--- about $300 over the summer and about $100 a couple weeks ago --- NO idea how the amounts were calculated but I think everyone in the district got the same amount.

We don't normally qualify for food stamps, WIC, etc.

My other kiddo is in a charter school and didn't get anything. So it goes by school, not by family.

Hashem_Yaazor

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 4:28 am

Sort of.

There are 2 systems (usually) for schools to provide meals through the national lunch program. 1 is by family income (free, reduced, full) and one is based on amount of low income total in that area (your daughter's case) that if it's high enough, everyone in the school/district qualifies.

The pandemic EBT cards were issued for children who qualified for free or reduced lunch during the school year through either method (family income or the whole geographical area being low enough) to make up for not getting their free/reduced lunch in school.

The amount given was on a per state basis. Ohio's average amount of school days left for the school year when covid hit was less than NY because it starts and ends earlier in general. The state calculated the average amount of school days, multiplied it by the amount the government determined per day, and issued it to the students who qualified as per my above paragraph.

The only school involvement was to provide a list of students to the state and the rest was done by the department that issued the P-EBT distributions.

There is additional P-EBT funding for this period for schools that have a certain amount of remote learning days per month instead of being in school then. It's also calculated at the daily rate I'm pretty sure.

TwinsMommy

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 6:23 am

Thanks for explaining!