Pennsylvania Advances Chip-Enabled SNAP Cards to Combat Benefit Theft
Pennsylvania lawmakers advance bipartisan bill requiring chip-enabled SNAP cards by 2028 to combat criminals stealing millions in food benefits monthly.
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania lawmakers are advancing legislation to provide chip-enabled cards to more than two million residents who receive food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, addressing benefit theft that costs the state millions each month.
House Bill 2540 would require the state Department of Human Services to offer chip-enabled Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to SNAP enrollees by January 2028. The bipartisan legislation is co-sponsored by Representatives Dan Williams, a Democrat from Chester, and Doyle Heffley, a Republican from Carbon County.
Each month, Pennsylvania awards more than $300 million in food assistance through DHS to eligible enrollees, but millions of those dollars are stolen by criminals who use skimming devices to capture card information from traditional magnetic stripe cards.
Technology Gap Leaves Benefits Vulnerable
While debit and credit card companies have largely transitioned to chip-enabled cards that create unique codes for each transaction, Pennsylvania’s EBT cards still rely on older magnetic stripe technology. The chip technology prevents skimmers attached to card readers from recording and reusing card information.
“There’s nothing worse than somebody (being) in the checkout lane with their groceries and find out that somebody has stolen their access card. This is going to really go a long way to improve that,” Heffley said.
The vulnerability particularly impacts low-income families who depend on SNAP benefits for basic nutrition. “For families relying on SNAP benefits to put food on the table, a stolen benefit can mean going without groceries. Unlike traditional bank customers, they often have limited options for recovery,” Williams added.
Implementation Timeline and Costs
A DHS spokesperson indicated that implementing chip-enabled cards would require six to eight months and cost approximately $14 million total. Pennsylvania would be responsible for $6.92 million of that cost, with $7.09 million available in matching federal funds if the state approves the upgrade before an October deadline.
The January 2028 implementation deadline in the legislation would provide sufficient time for the state to complete the technical transition and distribute new cards to all current SNAP recipients across Pennsylvania.
The proposed upgrade is a step toward bringing Pennsylvania’s food assistance program in line with modern payment security standards used by financial institutions nationwide. The enhanced security could prevent millions in annual losses while ensuring that food assistance reaches the intended recipients.
