Updates on Pandemic EBT

by Fatima Jawaid and Chloe Eberhardt

We wanted to provide a quick update on both Pandemic EBT and Summer Pandemic EBT.

All PEBT benefits for the October 2020 to May 2021 period have been dispersed to eligible families. According to the Oregon Department of Human Services and the Oregon Department of Education, who administer Oregon’s PEBT benefits, all outstanding benefits were dispersed by the end of September to eligible families.

Over the past few months, there have been disbursement delays impacting some families, but at this point the majority of fixes have been resolved. You can learn more about PEBT Known Issues and Fixes  here. If you think a family is still being impacted by a known issue or they haven’t received benefits but were eligible please have them contact the Pandemic EBT hotline. Contact information is listed below.  The deadline to disperse benefits for the 2020-21 school year is November 30th, so please have families follow up as soon as possible.

Oregon has been approved to provide summer Pandemic EBT benefits for June through August  2021. Eligible families will receive full Summer PEBT for each eligible child in the  amount of $389 divided over two payments. The first payment of $129 occurred October 1; and the second payment  of $260 was  staggered over October 22-30, 2021.

Children who meet the following eligibility requirements will be automatically issued Summer PEBT benefits. Summer PEBT is an extension of the PEBT for the  2020-2021 school year:

  • Students who received PEBT benefits for the 2020-21 school year.

  • Children aged 6 years and younger who are part of a SNAP case at any time between June 1, 2021 and September 4, 2021

  • Students who applied for Summer PEBT between June 1, 2021 and September 4, 2021

If you have questions or benefit issues, call the hotline at (503) 945-6481 or email ebt[email protected].or.us.

As for Pandemic EBT benefits for the  2021-22 school year: USDA has approved the possibility of 2021-22 PEBT, more to come on what might be possible for Oregon.