Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) signage at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment error rates (PER) for fiscal year 2025 on Wednesday, which shows nationwide, there were $10.1 billion in improper payments.
The total includes both overpayments and underpayments and equates to an error rate of 10.62% for FY 2025, which exceeds the congressional threshold of 6%. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 of one year through September 30 of the following year.
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What they’re saying:
“These payment error rates are further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP. USDA has taken historic action to help interested states curb SNAP waste, and I hope other states, regardless of political leadership, prioritize needy families and the American taxpayer over politics,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins in a release.
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SNAP Quality Control
Dig deeper:
According to the USDA, federal law assigns state agencies the responsibility for monitoring and improving SNAP administration. While the federal government provides overall oversight, states handle the detailed work of ensuring eligible households receive accurate benefits, giving them autonomy to identify and correct errors.
The SNAP Quality Control system measures how accurately states determine a household’s eligibility and benefits. As part of the quality control system, both the FNS and states identify underpayment and overpayment errors.
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Underpayments are when a household receives fewer benefits than they are entitled to receive, while overpayments are when a household receives more benefits than they are entitled to.
To identify underpayment and overpayment errors, the USDA says each month, states review a select number of household case files, totaling 50,000 per year from all states combined. The USDA then conducts a second review of approximately half of the state cases to determine any benefit errors.
The USDA process requires that when state agencies identify a benefit error, they must make a correction by either reimbursing underpayments or recouping overpayments so that each household gets exactly what they are eligible to receive.
Every year in June, the USDA analyzes the final data collected from the states and uses that to determine national and state payment error rates.
When a state’s error rate exceeds the national payment error rate, USDA is required to determine a state’s financial responsibility. The USDA says states can either immediately pay the determined amount to USDA or settle by investing 50% of the amount in ways to address the root cause of the errors and improve the state’s administration of SNAP with the remaining 50% held as “at-risk” for future payment.
If a state is determined to be financially responsible for poor performance in three consecutive years, the USDA says it will collect the previously held amount.
The backstory:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) oversees the SNAP program, which in fiscal year 2024 cost just over $100 billion, providing an average of $190.59 a month per person to over 42 million people.
The federal government sends SNAP funds to states which administer applications and determine eligibility based on federal guidelines. Benefits are loaded on prepaid cards through the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system and beneficiaries use the cards at stores to pay for their groceries.
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