West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) is pleased to announce USDA has approved the Department to issue P-EBT benefits to eligible non-student children.
These payments will be issued retroactively for the entire SY 2021-2022. For more information regarding eligibility or benefit issuance, please call the WV P-EBT hotline at 1-866-545-6502
Frequently Asked Question for Non-Student SNAP P-EBT Households
Benefits are determined based upon the operational status of the county school system in which the child resides. To be eligible a child must reside in a county that has one or more schools closed or operating at a reduced attendance or hours schedule (a mix of in-person and virtual learning) for 5 consecutive days.
P-EBT for non-students is calculated using data from Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The benefit amount is based on a reduction comparison of meal claims collected by the West Virginia Department of Education.
Non-students must be in a SNAP household to receive P-EBT benefits.
Families will receive a letter in the mail as a receipt each month, which details how much their child was eligible to receive for the benefit determination period.
This batch of P-EBT is not tied to any particular learning model. It is available for children in West Virginia under the age of 6 and in a household that receives SNAP benefits.
This is different than the school-age program, which is tied to attending a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program and is not connected exclusively to SNAP.
No, you do not need to apply for P-EBT. Information maintained by the SNAP agency (DHHR) determined which children in West Virginia were eligible for this program.
No, children do not need to be present when using the card for purchases.
Receipt of SNAP. Under the student plan SNAP is not part of eligibility criteria, language from the Consolidated Appropriations Act passed in October 2020 requires that a child under 6 have SNAP to be issued as a non-student.
If the child’s SNAP benefit closes, the child will not be eligible for a P-EBT benefit the following month. SNAP eligibility is directly tied to non-school aged P-EBT eligibility.
If your family has moved out of state, your child will not be eligible to receive P-EBT in West Virginia the following month. P-EBT is issued retroactively to eligible children, so a non-school aged child would be eligible until the month they moved to another state.
Example: A family moves to Georgia in May 2022, any eligible children under 6 in the household would receive P-EBT through May 2022 in West Virginia. The child would not be eligible in June 2022.
For more information on where P-EBT can be spent or what items are eligible for purchase, please click here: