SNAP BENEFIT OVERPAYMENTS HIGHEST IN THESE FIVE STATES
Several states are recording high SNAP overpayment rates, according to data released by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are paid for by the federal government and distributed by state and local authorities. Monthly amounts are loaded onto electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to be used in participating stores, helping those on low and no income and resources pay for essential groceries.
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Errors in the distribution of SNAP benefits are "not synonymous with fraud," with the FNS saying that "errors are largely due to unintentional mistakes, either by the state agency or the household, that affect the accurate determination of eligibility or benefit amounts."
Alaska has by far the highest overpayment rate, sitting at 59.59 percent for 2023; around 50 percent higher than the national average of 10.3 percent and almost 30 percent higher than New Jersey, which has the second highest rate of overpayments at 33.48 percent.
Alaska has now been fined $12 million by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) due to the exceedingly high error rate. The Alaska Beacon news outlet says this is due to the state government extending benefits to residents while it worked through a backlog of food stamp applications.
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The FNS said in a news release that "all states that performed poorly this year will be required to submit a corrective action plan addressing the root causes of errors to improve payment accuracy. In addition, states with high error rates for two consecutive years are assessed a financial penalty."
"Now the state is being fined $12 million because of this," Northeast Anchorage Senator Bill Wielechowski said on X, formerly Twitter. "While our workforce is fantastic, we simply can't get people to do these jobs because our retirement system is worst in nation."
The state with the third highest rate of overpayment is South Carolina, with an overpayment rate of 20.94 percent. It is followed by Hawaii (19.97 percent) and Delaware (19.23 percent).
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The state with the lowest overpayment rate is Vermont (2.82 percent), followed closely by South Dakota (2.87 percent) and Idaho (2.96 percent).
High overpayment rates in some states have been criticized by Republican lawmakers. "While SNAP is a critical nutrition program for households in need, any level of erroneous payments is a misuse of taxpayer dollars," Glenn "GT" Thompson, House Agriculture Committee chairman and Pennsylvania congressman, and Arkansas Senator John Boozman said in a joint news release.
"Today we learned that, with more than $10 billion in overpayments in 2023, the level of erroneous payments remains shockingly high. We are far removed from the pandemic, and it should no longer be used as a crutch."
Senate Democrats have agreed that the inaccuracy rates need to be brought down. "While states faced many challenges ensuring access to SNAP during the pandemic and unwinding temporary pandemic benefits and flexibilities, the national error rate reported today is unacceptable," said Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat.
"SNAP is a cornerstone of our nation's safety net, and accurate benefits are crucial for families in need and for public trust," Cindy Long, administrator for the FNS, said. "We cannot tolerate high error rates in a program that impacts millions of lives. States must take immediate action to improve the accuracy of SNAP payments—or they will face financial penalties."
2024-07-04T10:38:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd
