Patent ID: 6873959

Claim:
A method for accelerating the provision of funds to an individual from a non-health government social service program via a program administrator using a smart card, consisting of the steps of: a. issuing a smart card to an individual related to a particular non-health government social service program having a individual identification code for the individual; b. creating a relationship with providers of services and products under the particular non-health government social service program to be paid directly by the government for services and products using the smart card; c. using the smart card with a chip to determine if the individual: i. is the owner of the card; ii. is preauthorized for the advancement of funds for a particular non-health government social service program; d. using the smart card to determine if a service provider is preauthorized to provide a product or service under the non-health particular government social service program; and e. using the smart card to facilitate a first transmission from the service provider to the program administrator, wherein the first transmission comprises: i. service provider identification; ii. individual identification; iii. proposed product and service information, iv. a request to confirm: 1. the individual's eligibility for benefits under the particular non-health government social service program; and 2. to validate that accelerated payment of funds under the particular non-health governmental program is available; f. using the smart card to facilitate a second transmission from the government to the service provider, wherein the second transmission comprises: i. confirmation of accelerated payment of funds under the particular non-health governmental program; ii. an alert to the service provider that a portion of the funds may need to come from the individual and an indication of that fund amount; iii. dollar amount limits for the accelerated payment; iv. contact individual at the program administrator's office; v. authorization code to provide the product and/or service and to guarantee payment for the rendered services; g. using the smart card to facilitate a third transmission from the service provider to the government, wherein the third transmission comprises: i. an acknowledgement of the product and/or service cost; ii. information on the product and/or service provided to the individual; iii. acknowledgement that the product or service has been received by the individual from the service provider; and iv. acknowledgement that funds if necessary, were collected from the individual by the service provider; and h. from zero to two days from the third transmission being received by the government, funds are transmitted from the government to the service provider and received by the service provider for the product and/or service provided to the individual.