The USDA reported that SNAP payment errors exceeded $10 billion in Fiscal Year 2025, with a national error rate of 10.62 percent—a slight decline from 10.93 percent the prior year but still well above the 6 percent congressional threshold.

Under new rules included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states with error rates at or above that threshold will be required to cover a portion of their own SNAP benefits beginning Oct. 1, 2027, though experts caution that many errors stem from factors outside state agencies' control and that financial penalties may not effectively reduce error rates.

Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs, says it is important to note that “since a large portion of these errors are outside the control of the agencies [because they have to work with the information that clients provide], it will be difficult to bring down these errors without needlessly burdening all SNAP recipients.”

She says that since SNAP is designed to provide the highest benefit levels to the poorest households, the households facing the “most administrative scrutiny will be the most needy.” Research has shown that “increasing the administrative burden often results in households not accessing the benefits that they need,” she adds.

Read more in the Newsweek article, “SNAP Improper Payments Top $10 Billion Despite Trump’s Anti-Waste Push.”