Hoosiers will be unable to use their electronic benefit cards to access food stamps and welfare for several hours this weekend.
The electronic benefits transfer, or EBT system, will be offline beginning Saturday night at 11 p.m.
That's because Indiana is changing vendors – JPMorgan Chase is getting out of the EBT card business and the state is switching to Xerox.
Hoosiers will be unable to make food stamp purchases or access welfare benefits at grocery stores and ATMs for a little more than 12 hours, until Sunday afternoon.
Family and Social Services Administration spokesperson Marni Lemons says the agency already sent out postcards to affected people and will update through the weekend:
"You can follow our Twitter account at @FSSAIndiana, and we'll let people know if there are any problems but we really estimate that the service should be back in service by 12:30 p.m.," Lemons says.
The outage was purposely placed near the end of the month to avoid peak usage – the last round of September food stamps was released Wednesday, and welfare benefits aren't issued until the beginning of the month.