Wash. Pays JPMorgan More For Electronic Benefits Than Other States ($700k/mo)

[The Straight Story]

Wash. Pays JPMorgan More For Electronic Benefits Than Other States


OLYMPIA, Wash. – JPMorgan Chase charges Washington approximately 700-thousand dollars a month to issue food and cash welfare benefits via debit card. But public records show Washington is paying a premium compared to other states. Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins continues our coverage of Washington's electronic benefits program.

Each month in Washington, more than 450-thousand households receive money to buy food. Sixty-four thousand families get welfare cash. In the old days, these benefits were doled out on paper. Remember food stamps and welfare checks? But these days poor people on state assistance are issued a bank card that is automatically reloaded each month. Washington has joined with several other western states to contract with JPMorgan Chase – the second largest bank in the country - to provide these benefits electronically. But it turns out Washington pays more – in some cases a lot more – than other states.

Babs Roberts: "I'd certainly like to see us lower."

Babs Roberts is with Washington's Department of Social and Health Services. Her agency recently conducted a survey of what other states are paying for electronic benefits services. Of the 16 states that responded, Washington ranks sixth highest. The state pays a combined food-and-cash benefit charge to JPMorgan of $1.65 per client per month. That's forty-five cents more than Oregon pays its vendor – eFunds Corporation. And nearly seventy cents more per client, per month than Colorado pays even though Colorado also contracts with JPMorgan. That's because last year Colorado renegotiated the rate it pays. But Babs Roberts explains there's another factor too.




http://news.opb.org/article/wash._pays_jpmorgan_more_for_electronic_benefits_than_other_states/