New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 10 - HUMAN SERVICES › Chapter 88 - FAMILIES FIRST PROGRAM › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 10:88-1.4 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
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.