Florida’s Department of Children and Families uses the DCF financial release form CF-ES 2613 to get your written permission before it contacts banks, employers, and insurance companies to verify what you reported on a public assistance application or renewal. You download the form from MyACCESS, list every institution that holds your household’s money or pays income to anyone in it, have every adult in the household sign, and return it to DCF by online upload, fax, or mail. Without that signed authorization, the institutions have no reason to answer DCF’s questions, and your SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF application will sit.
Where to Get CF-ES 2613
The fastest source is the MyACCESS help page, where the form is listed under downloadable forms as “Financial Information Release (CF-ES 2613).”1MyACCESS. Florida Department of Children and Families Help Center It is a PDF. You can type into the fields before printing or print it blank and fill it in by hand. If you would rather work with paper from the start, any DCF customer service center will give you a copy; a searchable directory of locations is on the DCF website.2Florida Department of Children and Families. Applying for Assistance
What to Gather Before You Start
The form asks for exact details. Guessing at an account number or using a nickname for a bank will send the whole thing back to you, so pull the following together first:
- Your full legal name as it appears on government-issued ID, your Social Security number, and your DCF case number or ACCESS number if you already have one.
- The name, branch address, and full account number for every checking, savings, and investment account held by anyone in your household.
- The name and address of every current employer for household members with earnings.
- The name of every insurance company that provides a policy to anyone in the household.
The form itself grants permission to “any bank, building association, employer, insurance company” to release financial details, so the scope reaches past bank accounts. Listing everyone up front means DCF does not have to come back for a second authorization.
How to Fill It Out
At the top, enter your name, Social Security number, and case number. In the financial institution section, put each bank, credit union, building association, employer, and insurance company on its own line with the account number and branch address next to it. Match each institution’s name to what appears on your statement or on the institution’s website. A short name, an abbreviation, or a pre-merger name is enough to make the institution reject DCF’s inquiry when it arrives.
Then the signatures. Every adult in the household whose finances are being reported has to sign and date the form. That is what turns the paper into a legal authorization. One missing signature and DCF returns the form; your application waits until a corrected version comes back. Before you send anything, count the signature and date lines against the adults in your household.
How to Submit It
Whichever channel you use, write your ACCESS or case number, name, date of birth, and phone number on the form itself. DCF asks for those identifiers on every document.2Florida Department of Children and Families. Applying for Assistance
- Online upload through MyACCESS. Log into your account and use the document upload feature. The portal accepts PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, TIFFs, and several other formats up to 32 MB per file. If you do not have an account yet, you can register at myaccess.myflfamilies.com or use the anonymous upload tool on the same site.3MyACCESS. Anonymous Document Upload
- Fax or hand delivery to your local DCF customer service center. Locations and fax numbers are on the DCF website under ESS Storefronts and Lobbies.2Florida Department of Children and Families. Applying for Assistance
- Mail to Office of Economic Self Sufficiency Mail Center, P.O. Box 1770, Ocala, FL 34478-1770.2Florida Department of Children and Families. Applying for Assistance
After you submit, give MyACCESS about three business days to show the document as received.2Florida Department of Children and Families. Applying for Assistance Uploading or faxing lands in the system faster than mail because there is no postal delay.
What Happens After DCF Gets the Form
A caseworker uses your signed authorization to contact each institution you listed and check the reported balances, income, and other financial details against your application. Florida Administrative Code Rule 65A-1.205 requires DCF to substantiate applicant-provided information as part of every eligibility determination and lets the agency verify it electronically, by phone, in writing, or in person. DCF also runs data exchanges with the Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, and other agencies to cross-check what you reported.4Cornell Law Institute. Florida Admin Code 65A-1.205 – Eligibility Determination Process
If a data exchange returns something different from what is on file, DCF does a partial eligibility review and can adjust your benefit level. If the form is incomplete or a bank needs more detail, you will get a notice asking for more information. Federal regulations require SNAP applications to be processed within 30 calendar days of filing, and households in urgent need may qualify for expedited service within seven days.5eCFR. 7 CFR 273.2 – Application Processing Financial verification is one piece of that timeline, so sending back a complete, legible CF-ES 2613 the first time keeps the 30-day clock from running out.
Common Mistakes That Cause Delays
- Using a nickname or old name for a bank. Copy the institution’s name from a current statement or its website.
- Leaving out an account. Joint accounts, seldom-used savings accounts, and small credit union balances all belong on the form. An account DCF finds on a data exchange but not on your form raises a flag.
- Missing signatures. If more than one adult lives in the household, collect every signature before you send the form.
- Not keeping a copy. Photograph or scan the signed form before mailing it. If the original is lost, you can re-upload the copy through MyACCESS instead of starting over.
- Ignoring follow-up notices. The 30-day processing clock keeps running while DCF waits on you. A slow reply can push the application past the deadline and force a denial you then have to appeal.
Be Honest About What You List
Understating income or leaving accounts off the form is more than a paperwork issue. Under federal law, anyone who knowingly uses or acquires SNAP benefits contrary to program rules faces criminal charges. If the benefits involved are worth $5,000 or more, the offense is a felony carrying up to $250,000 in fines and 20 years in prison. Benefits between $100 and $5,000 can bring up to $10,000 in fines and five years in prison on a first conviction. Amounts under $100 are a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 2024 – Violations and Penalties DCF can also pursue an administrative Intentional Program Violation, which disqualifies the individual from SNAP for 12 months on a first finding, 24 months on a second, and permanently on a third. The verification process is built to catch discrepancies, so list every account and report accurate balances.