Xerox will work with the South Carolina Department of Social Services to simplify the delivery of government assistance in South Carolina. Under a $51 million, seven-year contract, Xerox will provide 420,000 South Carolina residents access to benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) via electronic benefits transfer cards.
Another 20,000 residents will access benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families via an electronic payment card solution, which accelerates payments to recipients by using a reloadable MasterCard debit card. Recipients can access the funds anywhere MasterCard is accepted.
Xerox was in the news for its assistance program earlier this year after its cards went offline for two days leaving customers in 17 states stranded without working cards.
Xerox will also provide a Web-based data warehouse to aid the state’s SNAP fraud unit in detecting suspicious and fraudulent behavior. State benefit disbursement fraud is estimated to be between $6-10 billion annually, and it is expected to double over the next five years.
Several states have been working to modernize benefits systems as demand continues to rise through the jobless recovery. Xerox currently provides benefit card services in 29 states.
