Governor LePage Announces EBT System Has Been Restored

Power outage at Xerox prevented use of EBT cards on Saturday

AUGUSTA –Governor Paul R. LePage announced this morning the system that processes Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) transactions has been restored and is now fully operational.

“Access to EBT accounts has been restored, and card holders may now access their benefits at locations accepting EBT,” said Governor LePage. “There is no need to talk to a Customer Service Representative about the system failure yesterday. All services have been restored.”

Xerox, which provides EBT service to 17 states, including Maine, experienced a major power outage on Saturday, preventing the use of EBT transactions. The service interruption, which affected access to programs such as SNAP and TANF, has been restored to Maine and the other states where Xerox manages EBT service.

“We appreciate your patience while Xerox worked to resolve this issue, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” said Mary Mayhew, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Service. “We realize that access to these benefits is very important to Maine families, and we will follow Xerox’s investigation into the cause of the failure so we can ensure a similar interruption does not happen again.”