Update: Oklahoma food stamp program back in service after outage

Xerox announced restoration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits program for Oklahoma on Saturday night. SNAP, often called “food stamps,” went down in several states due to a problem with Xerox. It was not related to the federal government shutdown, officials said.
By Jaclyn Cosgrove Modified: October 12, 2013 at 10:30 pm •  Published: October 12, 2013

The food stamp program that provides assistance to thousands of low-income families was down statewide Saturday, but was restored about 9 p.m., officials said.

Sheree Powell, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, said she found out early Saturday afternoon that the system for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often referred to as “food stamps,” was down throughout Oklahoma.

The system failure was due to a power outage at Xerox, which is the vendor for Oklahoma's SNAP benefits program.

About 9 p.m., Xerox issued a news release stating: “Beneficiary access to programs such as SNAP, TANF, and other programs has been restored to the 17 states where Xerox provides EBT service.

“Restarting the EBT system required time to ensure service was back at full functionality. Beneficiaries who required immediate access to their benefits could work with their local merchants who could activate an emergency voucher process where available. We appreciate our clients' patience while we resolved this issue and apologize for any inconvenience.


Earlier in the afternoon Powell said Xerox was working on its system and that DHS would update its website to alert SNAP users when it was working again.

“Usually, benefits are disbursed on the 1st, 5th and 10th of each month, so I would imagine those people who got their benefits on their cards on the 10th are probably the ones experiencing problems right now,” Powell said. “I would imagine the other folks who received their benefits earlier have already done their shopping.”

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by Jaclyn Cosgrove
Medical and Health Reporter
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There were some cashiers at some grocery stores that were telling consumers it was due to the federal government shutdown, but that is absolutely not the case”

Sheree Powell,
Oklahoma Department of Human Services spokeswoman

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