NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department said resource and foster parents were “inadvertently excluded” from receiving money to help keep kids fed during the summer.
The SUN Bucks program, which launched earlier this month, is federally funded and administered in New Mexico by the Public Education Department and the Health Care Authority. SUN Bucks EBT cards are issued to families to help pay for groceries in the summertime. The payments are $120 per child.
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“We discovered that a small number of qualified recipients in the resource/foster care program were excluded from the initial disbursement,” said CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados in a news release. “We have intervened on their behalf to ensure their accounts are credited promptly. We sincerely appreciate the swift action of our partners at PED and HCA to address this issue as soon as it was brought to their attention.”
According to CYFD, fostered school-aged children, ages 5 through 18, are automatically enrolled for SUN Bucks, and resource foster parents do not have to take any action to receive the funds. The department expects payments to be processed by the end of the month.
Applications to apply to the program closed on August 15.
In June, KRQE News 13 reached out to HCA about the timeliness of the program due to school starting in July and early August, but they did not address the time frame directly and stated:
The New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), soon to be the Health Care Authority (on July 1) is excited to participate in the roll out of this new federal program, SUN Bucks. HSD estimates that approximately 253,000 K-12 students are eligible to receive SUN Bucks this summer. With the logistics of implementing a new program, the state is on track to issue benefits to eligible students in August.
There will be at least two groups of SUN Bucks recipients. The students who are automatically eligible will be the first issuance group. Those students who apply for SUN Bucks eligibility will be in the second group to receive benefits.
Public Relations Coordinator Tim Fowler
For information about the SUN Bucks program, click here or call the New Mexico Health Care Authority’s Summer EBT Hotline at 505-695-8454, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
