Why do states outsource their EBT call centers?
The call center function has evolved as EBT has evolved over the years. Prior to EBT client calls were usually directed to a local social services office, and were a small fraction of the calls generated by today’s high-volume EBT card systems. As EBT developed, the government expressed a desire to develop a national, seamless EBT system that could “ride on the existing commercial infrastructure” of the electronic payments industry. This meant that states could implement EBT at a lower cost by avoiding the need to develop an EBT infrastructure of their own. The vast majority of states have achieved this goal of using existing electronic payments infrastructure by hiring system contractors or banks to develop end-to-end “turnkey” systems. These systems are modeled on existing credit and debit payment systems. EBT systems largely use the same commercial business practices, such as the ACH system, ATM networks, local dial-up communications and call centers that commercial electronic payme
