Payment Methods

Direct Deposit:

A Direct Deposit payment method may be either a Checking or a Savings account established by the payee with the financial institution of the payee’s choice.

An authorization to make payment via Direct Deposit and a cancelled check or banner header from a saving account is required from a payee before DHHS can enroll for Direct Deposit.

A payee has full access to the Direct Deposit account and DHHS can only make payments to the account.

Laws governing ACH (Automated Clearinghouse) payments require that DHHS obtain and maintain a paper authorization from the payee to direct payments electronically to their account.

Central Office Staff enter Direct Deposit information into the N-FOCUS System.  Follow the procedures in the Economic Assistance Policy Log to notify Central Office.

Debit Card

The Debit Card payment method is a Direct Deposit type of account that is established at the request of DHHS for a payee.  (It is often referred to as ReliaCard which is the trade name for the debit card issued by US Bank)

DHHS can only make payments to these accounts.

The payee only has access to these accounts for purposes of withdrawals.  They cannot make deposits.

DHHS must obtain and maintain a paper authorization from the payee to direct payments electronically to the debit card account.  

Workers can enter the Debit Card request information into N-FOCUS.

03-10-08