The SNAP payment error rate ticked upward to 11.68 percent in fiscal 2023, the second straight year of sharply higher post-pandemic error rates, said the Agriculture Department. Farm-state Republicans, who want to cut SNAP spending, said the new farm bill should eliminate any tolerance for overpayments by states, which administer SNAP.
“States must take immediate action to improve the accuracy of SNAP payments — or they will face financial penalties,” said Cindy Long, administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service. The USDA said states that performed poorly in 2023 would be required to submit a plan to root out the causes of their errors. States must address persistent post-pandemic error rates to avoid financial penalties, it said.
SNAP error rates include over- and under-payment of benefits. The USDA says the error rate is a measurement of accuracy and not fraud.
The 2023 error rate of 11.68 percent included over-payments of 10.03 percent and under-payments of 1.64 percent. The fiscal 2022 rate was 11.54 percent. There were no reports in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. In fiscal 2019, the error rate was 7.36 percent. It was 6.80 percent in 2018 and 6.30 percent in 2017. There were measurement issues in 2015 and no national report in 2016.
Alaska had the highest error rate, 60.37 percent, followed by New Jersey, 35.70 percent, and Delaware, 22.80 percent, in 2023, according to the USDA. South Dakota had the lowest error rate, 3.27 percent, followed by Idaho, 3.42 percent, and Vermont, 3.45 percent.
A possible factor in recent increases in SNAP error rates is a 2022 change in policy on how to treat procedural mistakes, said a think tank spokesperson; the change counted the benefit amount as an overpayment even if it was the correct amount based on household income and other circumstances.
“Any level of erroneous payments is a misuse of taxpayer dollars,” said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson and Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee in a joint statement that called on states and the USDA to do a better job. “House and Senate Republicans stand ready to ensure the next farm bill takes steps to mitigate these occurrences.”
The farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee “eliminates any threshold for erroneous payments,” said a summary of the legislation. “An error is an error and states should have no grace.” The farm bill framework released by Boozman “requires states to return SNAP over-payments to the U.S. Department of Treasury and recoup SNAP over-payments due to household fraud.”
Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said the 2023 error rate “is unacceptable.” She said the new farm bill should provide more tools and resources to states to reduce errors.
At latest count, 41.5 million people participated in SNAP with monthly benefits of $186 per person, or a total of $7.7 billion.
A year-by-year record of SNAP payment error rates was available here.