New York State’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system is scheduled to undergo a system upgrade on May 19, 2024, with a planned downtime of at least 11 hours. According to official sources from the state government, the system will be offline from 12:01 AM to 11:00 AM on that day. This outage will specifically impact EBT cardholders in New York State, who will not be able to use their EBT cards to purchase food or withdraw cash during this time period.
During this transitional period, EBT’s customer service hotline, mobile application, and online customer portal will also be temporarily unavailable. The state government advises EBT cardholders to plan ahead for their food or cash needs and to avoid the scheduled downtime.
Following this system upgrade, the current ConnectEBT application and online portal will no longer be in use. Cardholders will need to download the new “ebtEDGE” application, which will offer new functionalities such as transaction and deposit inquiries, as well as the ability to freeze and unfreeze cards. Information about the new smartphone application and website will be released after the system upgrade. State government announcement link: https://otda.ny.gov/ebt-conversion.asp
The upgrade will not affect cardholders’ EBT cards or PIN numbers, as cardholders’ PINs will remain unchanged. After the upgrade is completed, cardholders can continue to use their EBT cards and contact the existing customer service hotline for assistance.
This temporary system suspension only affects EBT cardholders in New York State, and cardholders from other states will not be impacted and can use their EBT cards in New York.