USDA to ban online transaction fees on school lunch payments for low-income families
Source: NBC News
Nov. 4, 2024, 3:57 PM EST
A new federal rule will prohibit schools from charging low-income students transaction fees when their families electronically deposit funds into their lunch accounts.
The policy was announced Friday by the Agriculture Department, which administers the national program that serves billions of student lunches and breakfasts every year.
The ban on the junk fees, which will go into effect in the 2027-28 academic year, applies to students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals those whose annual household incomes are 185% or less of the federal poverty level, which equals $57,720 maximum for a family of four.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency that aims to ensure fairness in the marketplace, estimated in a report in July that school meal payment processors collect more than $100 million in transaction fees a year. The report said the fees disproportionately burden lower-income households, which tend to make smaller, more frequent electronic deposits into their childrens accounts.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/usda-ban-online-transaction-fees-school-lunch-payments-low-income-fami-rcna178634
Link to USDA PRESS RELEASE - Biden-Harris Administration to End Online Junk Fees for Low-Income Families Paying for School Meals
GB_RN
(3,175 posts)What the fuck is wrong with these schools? Reduced, and free lunches, are for kids in low income families. Who, in these school systems, thought up, Hey! I know! We take advantage of poor people by charging them fees when they deposit money onto the kids accounts! Well make a MINT!
marybourg
(13,193 posts)Payment processor, a sophisticated website, seeming allied with a bank or other financial company, to accept and keep track of payments. This is where the fees are going. No more nickels (in my era) wrapped in a handkerchief.
Hekate
(94,867 posts)BumRushDaShow
(142,935 posts)From the press release -
To comply with Contract law.
OldBaldy1701E
(6,409 posts)Why was it allowed in the first place?? Have we all turned into petty leeches? Sure looks like it!