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Q&A
Council Member Ung inquires about HRA's efforts to prevent EBT card scams
1:15:33
ยท
90 sec
Council Member Sandra Ung questions First Deputy Commissioner Jill Berry about the Department of Social Services' proactive measures to prevent EBT card scams. Berry outlines current efforts, including distributing informational flyers and developing educational videos.
- HRA has increased distribution of flyers about EBT card scams to community-based organizations and clients.
- The department is working on creating videos to educate users on using the EBT Edge app and identifying skimming attempts.
- Council Member Ung suggests creating these educational videos in multiple languages.
Sandra Ung
1:15:33
Thank you, chair.
1:15:34
I just wanna follow-up on this EPD card scam as you see affects a lot of our districts.
1:15:39
Is there any proactive steps that HR is taking, to tell their clients about ways to prevent that?
1:15:46
You know, know there's a way to freeze unfreeze the app and I know this is not the easiest for many people to use, but is and is there you know, and teaching also the clients when you go to the supermarkets to look out for these skimmers.
1:16:00
So what proactive steps are you taking for the clients to make sure that, you know, this you know, this stops happening month to month?
Jill Berry
1:16:08
Yep.
1:16:09
So we have in particular this year since we are unable to replace the skim SNAP benefits, we have re upped our flyers, made flyers available to community based organizations.
1:16:25
All of our outreach and work in collaboration with the community based organizations through our New York City benefits program and through newsletters, communications to others, we're making sure that we are providing flyers on the information.
1:16:41
We're also working on some videos on how to use the e b the EBT Edge app and how to look for and identify skimming.
Sandra Ung
1:16:52
Thank you.
1:16:53
Can you, you know, is the videos done yet or hasn't it's not it's still in progress?
Jill Berry
1:16:58
I believe we're still working on those.
Sandra Ung
1:16:59
You're doing those videos.
1:17:01
It'll be great to have them different languages.