DHS to Issue P-EBT Benefits for Children under Age 6 Receiving SNAP

Published on Monday, June 20, 2022

The RI Department of Human Services (DHS) has received approval to issue Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) benefits to children under age six who received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the 2021-2022 school year. Benefits will be issued to eligible children in two lump sum issuances on or about June 23, 2022, and again in July 2022.

The first lump sum payment will be issued to any child under age six who received SNAP benefits during the period between September 2021 and December 2021. These children will receive a $40 retroactive payment to their household’s EBT card for each month they were eligible.

A monthly amount for the second lump sum issuance has not yet been determined, but SNAP children found eligible may receive a second lump sum payment sometime in July 2022 on the same EBT card.

These two lump sum benefit disbursements are for SNAP children under age 6 who did not already receive school age related P-EBT benefits.

An example to illustrate the benefit issuance is available below:

  • A household with one child under age six who received SNAP each month between September 2021 to December 2021 could receive one lump sum benefit amount totaling $160 in value. Additional benefits not yet determined may be issued in the second lump sum payment in July if the same child was eligible between January 2022 and June 2022. Households may have more than one eligible child.

School age children in SNAP and Non-SNAP households began receiving P-EBT benefits in February. The plan to issue benefits to children under age six in SNAP households was approved recently by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).

Families with eligible children do not have to take any action to receive these benefits. If families have a child they believe should have received the lump sum P-EBT benefits and did not, United Way’s 211 is available to answer general questions families may have about P-EBT benefits.

More information about P-EBT for the 2021-2022 school year is available online here.