Illinois Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can expect their benefit payments to be deposited monthly on the Illinois Link EBT Card. Recipients receive their Link Card once approved for benefits from the Illinois Department of Human Services, which administers the program.

                By                    Josephine Nesbit

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SNAP benefits can be used to purchase groceries, snacks, seeds and plants that produce food at retail stores and farmers markets that accept EBT cards as payment. Benefits cannot be used to purchase alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, vitamins, certain live animals and nonfood items. Although foods that are hot at the point of sale currently aren’t eligible for purchase with an Illinois Link Card, Illinois will participate in the SNAP Restaurant Meals Program, which allows SNAP households to purchase hot foods and restaurant meals at participating businesses, beginning late this spring.

You can apply for SNAP online through the Application for Benefits Eligibility portal, located here. It takes between 30 and 45 minutes to complete an application, and you’ll be contacted within 14 days for an interview with your caseworker. You can then access Manage My Case, located on the portal page, to track the status of your application and manage your benefits. Once you’re approved, one Illinois Link Card will be issued per account.

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The date on which payments are deposited onto your Link Card depends on the last number of your individually assigned case number. 

If you had a SNAP case that was converted from a legacy case, you will keep your legacy availability date of either the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 17th or 20th.

For new cases on the Link system, benefits are deposited between the 1st and 10th of the month. The specific date depends on the last digit of the head of household’s individual identification number, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.

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Here is the May deposit schedule for newly approved Illinois SNAP recipients:

Regular roll benefits are available by 3:00 a.m. on the same date every month, including holidays and weekends.