TO:	Commissioners, TA & FS Directors, HEAP Coordinators, Staff Development Coordinators, TOP Coordinators, CAP Coordinators

FROM: Russell Sykes, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Employment & Transitional Supports

SUBJECT:	 Weekend Benefit Issuance To Hurricane Katrina Evacuees Upstate

EFFECTIVE DATE:  Immediately

CONTACT PERSON:  Tom Hedderman @1-800-433-8859, extension 6-6939	

The purpose of this GIS is to inform local districts of the availability of WMS and BICS for the next three Saturdays to enable any local districts that so choose to provide immediate support and assistance on weekends to Hurricane Katrina evacuees residing in New York State.

As of Monday, September 12, 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported that more than 2,300 families or individuals who have registered with FEMA as evacuees from the areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that have been designated as federal disaster areas, have reported to FEMA that they now are residing, at least temporarily, in New York State.  These are not individuals and families who have been placed here as part of FEMA’s relocation effort, but either have found their way here on their own or have been assisted by a non-governmental agency such as the Red Cross.  Some of these folks already have been in to local district social services offices to apply for benefits.  At this time, FEMA has indefinitely suspended relocation efforts outside of the South, and we do not know if, when or how many Katrina evacuees New York State may receive as part of a FEMA relocation.  However, in the event that any local districts may be looking to accommodate evacuees and register cases and issue benefits on the weekend (Saturdays only), OTDA is taking the following steps to ensure that all necessary systems are available.

We have arranged to make WMS and BICS available upstate during business hours for the next three Saturdays. The BICS pre-registration transactions will be available for same day benefit issuance. Districts should be aware that if BICS pre-registration is to be used then individuals must be on site who have TTSS access to those transactions. A 5:00 PM Saturday pull down of benefits generated by BICS Pre-Registration will transmit those benefits to the EBT contractor and will be available to recipients shortly thereafter. Vault cards may be issued to these recipients using normal CBIC processes. Adding the payee to the case via the CBIC on-line screen will make the benefits accessible via the vault card issued.  If the district chooses to authorize single issue benefits on screen six of WMS those benefits will not be available until the following week (Tuesday for food stamp benefits, Wednesday for cash benefits) as BICS file maintenance will not run on Saturday evening.   

In addition to ensuring that they have adequate staff who are authorized to perform BICS pre-registration transactions, upstate local districts planning to process applications and issue benefits to evacuees on Saturdays should ensure that they also have staff available who are authorized and trained to PIN EBT vault cards using the MagTek CAPS PINing machine.  And although the volumes to be processed are likely to be small, local districts should make sure that they have an adequate range of food stamp and cash benefit numbers reserved and available in BICS for pre-registration.  

Also, OTDA also has been informed by the New York State Department of Health that DOH is not waiving the photo requirement for evacuees applying for Medicaid benefits.  Local districts seeking to meet evacuees’ assistance needs as comprehensively as possible in one intake session will want to ensure that the AFIS equipment necessary to fulfill the MA photo ID requirement is also available at the intake location.