COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Social Services system experienced an outage that impacted anyone trying to get access to their benefits or the DSS website for almost a day.
According to the department, it was resolved around 2 p.m. Monday. However, frustrated people went in person to DSS offices Monday morning after the website wasn't working at home.
“This was basically a wasted trip,” Reginald Walker said.
Walker is like many others who went to the DSS office in Columbia where he was looking to renew his SNAP benefits for March. That trip came after he first tried the Department of Social Services website at home.
“It kept sending me back to page, step one, step one, step one," Walker said. "Well, I may as well go down there to see why I keep going back to step one when I’m doing what I’m supposed to do."
When he realized using the website from home was no use he took the bus to the Richland County DSS office, and like many others, he found out he wasn’t the only person with issues on the website.
“The system is down,” he said he found out.
According to an ‘X’ thread, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, the Department of Social Services says a private contractor near its Bull Street offices cut a major fiber line on Sunday evening. The result was damage to the circuit that provides the main internet and network connectivity for DSS.
Tammie McHomes was looking to check on the status of her benefits as well and had the same problem as Walker. So she also went to the Richland County office, since she said she depends on her SNAP benefits.
“I only work part-time so this helps out covering other ends. I also have children I have to feed,” Mchomes said.
She said because of the connectivity outage she’s still missing her benefits.
“The website is just spinning its not working. So, I’m not able to pull up whether or not anything was processed. So I’m pretty sure it wasn’t cause I don’t have any money today,” she said.
The Department of Social Services said now that the website is up and running again the agency said it does not expect any additional delays or issues.