The state of California is transitioning to a new Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Vendor on June 30, 2018. Because of this transition, a statewide 24-hour EBT outage and black-out period is scheduled from Saturday, June 23, 2018 beginning at 11 p.m. until Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 11:00 p.m. During this outage, cardholders will not be able to access their EBT food or cash benefits. EBT cardholders are encouraged to plan ahead for their shopping needs.
This scheduled, one-time distribution of the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) outage is required to support the transition of EBT vendor services from Conduent (formerly Xerox) to Fidelity Information Services (FIS).
Notices were mailed to EBT cardholders the first week of June. Staff at all locations are notifying any newly granted cases about the outage and posting informational signs in office lobby areas.
The client website at www.ebt.ca.gov will also be unavailable during this outage. Cardholders calling the EBT Customer Service Help Line (1-877-328-9677) during this period will be reminded of the outage via a recorded message. Due to the website and call centers being down, cardholders will be unable to check their balances during this outage.
Additionally, all authorized retailers have been notified of the outage. They have been encouraged to inform their own staff and post informational signage in their stores for EBT cardholders as well.
