New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 10 - HUMAN SERVICES
Chapter 88 - FAMILIES FIRST PROGRAM
Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 10:88-1.4 - Definitions
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
"Administration for Children and Families (ACF)" means the organization within USDHHS which is directly responsible for the administration of the TANF Program.
"Aging" means the procedure of terminating or suspending a household's Families First account, and closing or suspending the household's public assistance case, when the household has not accessed the Families First account for three months.
"Authorized representative" means an individual designated by a recipient to have access to his or her benefits.
"Authorized retailer" means any merchant who has been approved by FNS to accept SNAP benefits as payment for eligible food items and has also completed and signed a retailer agreement with the State's EBT contractor. Authorized retailers include, but are not limited to, retail grocery stores, food chains, farmers markets, roadside vendors, delivery services, and cooperatives.
"Automated/Audio Response Unit (ARU)" means a computer peripheral that accepts data from touch-tone telephones and responds with synthesized voice commands and information. ARUs are used by an EBT system to provide balance information or to authorize manual transactions.
"Automated teller machine (ATM)" means an unattended terminal that reads a magnetic stripe card and permits the cardholder to make transactions, such as cash withdrawals.
"Available balance" means the amount of funds that may be accessed by a cardholder for a transaction from a cash or NJ SNAP account.
"Balance inquiry" means a non-financial transaction that permits the cardholder to obtain the current balance of his or her account(s).
"Benefit" means the value of cash or NJ SNAP assistance provided to a household through an EBT card.
"Case" means one or more individuals usually sharing family membership and eligibility classification, for example, a mother and child.
"Case number" means the 10-digit number that uniquely identifies a case in the State's automated case file and issuance system/EBT system. The case number begins with "C," "S," or "G" followed by six numeric characters and ending with a three-digit county code.
"Client" means an eligible recipient of one of the State's benefit programs.
"Contractor" means the organization that has contracted with the State to administer the day-to-day operations of the Families First system.
"County welfare agency (CWA)" means the county agency that administers the public assistance programs in that county.
"Customer service representative (CSR)" means a live person who provides assistance to an EBT client or retailer via a telephone call to a customer service center. Examples of assistance include access to account information and action on reports of lost or stolen cards.
"Electronic benefit transfer (EBT)" means the utilization of a Families First debit card by which a recipient may draw benefits through an approved financial institution or vendor.
"Expungement" means permanent removal of benefits from a Families First account.
"Families First" or the "Families First Program" means the method by which public assistance benefits are disbursed in New Jersey through utilization of EBT technology.
"Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)" means the organization within the USDA, which is directly responsible for the administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
"Food Stamp Program (FSP)" means the Federally funded assistance program authorized by the Food Stamp Act of 1964 that enables individuals and households to purchase food items to maintain nutritionally adequate diets. Eligibility is determined and benefits are issued by the states.
"Food stamp purchase" means a payment for the value of eligible food items sold to a customer at an FNS authorized retailer.
"Food Stamp return" means a refund for the value of merchandise originally purchased with food stamp benefits that is brought back by a customer for a credit from the retailer.
"Full branch office" means any bank branch location as defined by 17:9A-1(15).
"Gaming establishment" means any casino, casino room, or licensed casino operating as defined by 5:12-6 or any racetrack or off-track wagering facility as defined by 13:74-1.1.
"Group living arrangements/group home" means specific licensed residential living facilities for a number of individuals.
"Help Desk" means the Families First system operation, which assists recipients and retailers in the resolution of problems associated with Families First. The Help Desk is accessed via toll-free telephone numbers.
"Inactive account" means an account where the household has not taken any action that affects the balance of the account, such as making a purchase, return, or cash withdrawal.
"Liquor store" means any liquor store operating with a Class C license as defined by 33:1-12.
"Non-traditional" means a person, company, or organization, retailer or vendor authorized by FNS to accept SNAP benefits in exchange for eligible food items that does not have access to a telephone line or electricity at the POS, and, therefore, is unable to use a standard POS device to authorize transactions (for example, farmers' markets and route vendors). Others, such as group homes, treatment centers, food cooperatives, and communal dining facilities may have special circumstances that require a variety of unique accommodations in order to continue SNAP participation in the EBT environment.
"Off-line" means an EBT system or transaction in which individual purchases are authorized without telecommunication between the POS device and a central database. In an off-line EBT system, data on the recipient's account balance is maintained on the access card and purchase authorization only requires contact between the card and the local device.
"On-line" means an EBT system or transaction in which authorization of individual purchases requires telecommunication between the POS device or ATM and a central database in which data on account balances is maintained.
"Personal identification number (PIN)" means a numeric code selected by or assigned to the recipient and used to control access to individual accounts. The PIN must be entered on a keypad before any transaction can be processed.
"Point of Sale (POS) device" means equipment, such as a terminal, PIN pad and printer, deployed at a retail location and used to initiate the electronic debit of recipient accounts and credit to retailer accounts.
"Primary account number (PAN)" means the assigned number that identifies the card issuer and cardholder. It includes the issuer's identification number and an individual account identification number.
"Quest(R) EBT operating rules" means the uniform EBT rules established and maintained by the National Automated Clearing House (NACH), which form the basis of a uniform operating environment for EBT.
"Receipt" means a hard copy description of a transaction that took place at the POS, containing at a minimum, the date, merchant name and location, truncated PAN, type of account accessed, transaction amount and account balance.
"SNAP purchase" means a payment for the value of eligible food items sold to a customer at an FNS authorized retailer.
"SNAP return" means a refund for the value of merchandise originally purchased with NJ SNAP benefits that is brought back by a customer for a credit from the retailer.
"Store and forward" means a process by which an NJ SNAP transaction is electronically stored with an encrypted PIN by a POS terminal operator when the POS terminal operator is unable to communicate with the card issuer, and is later forwarded to the issuer for approval.
"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)" means the program operated pursuant to the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008.
"United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)" means the Federal department, which is responsible for SNAP.
"United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS)" means the Federal department which is responsible for the TANF Program.
