The United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services has announced that Nebraska has been approved to disburse Child Care Pandemic Benefits Transfer Funds. Child Care P-EBT is a USDA program designed to provide cash benefits on an EBT card to purchase food. This was established in response to the COVID-19 emergency and its purpose is to provide benefits to children under the age of 6 participating in SNAP who lost access to food due to daycare closures or adjusted hours and attendance from October 2020 through May 2021.
Child Care P-EBT benefits will be issued based on the school’s status for the county in which the child resides. Families that receive SNAP with children under the age of 6 are eligible for P-EBT benefits if one or more schools in their county were closed or operated with reduced attendance or hours due to COVID-19. If the school was 100% distance or remote learning, families will receive $116 monthly for each child. If the school operated with reduced attendance or hours, families will receive $62 monthly for each child. A child may not receive 2020/2021 school year P-EBT funds and Child Care P-EBT funds for the same month.
Benefits will be issued every month through September 2021 to children determined eligible and the first issuance of Child Care P-EBT benefits will occur on June 24, 2021.