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Resource | Research and Data Understanding Risk Assessment in SNAP Payment Accuracy

This study provides an overview of the risk assessment tools currently used by the state agencies that administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to categorize those program applications more likely to incur payment errors and allocate resources to improve the accuracy of benefit payments to families participating in SNAP. 

12/30/2025
Data Visualization
SNAP Retailer Management Year End Summary FY 2024

This dashboard was created to share information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program retailer participation during fiscal year 2024. 

07/10/2025
Resource | Policy Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA); Interpretation of “Federal Public Benefit”

This notice sets forth the interpretation that the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses for the term “Federal public benefit” as used in Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. In doing so, this notice supersedes any prior interpretation in any notice or other document issued by any USDA agency. This notice also describes and preliminarily identifies the USDA programs that provide “Federal public benefits” within the scope of PRWORA.

07/10/2025
Resource | Policy Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-108, notice is hereby given that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposes to create a new system of records (SOR) entitled USDA/FNS-15, “National Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Information Database.”

06/23/2025
Resource | Research and Data Benefit Redemption Patterns in SNAP - FY 2022

We periodically examine how SNAP households use their monthly EBT benefits, including number of purchase transactions per month, average purchase amount, types of retailers frequented, and rate at which households exhaust their benefits over the month. This study, the fourth in the series, was done to assess monthly EBT redemption patterns during FY 2022 when SNAP EBT benefits were much larger than usual due to pandemic funding. By FY 2022, SNAP households could also use SNAP EBT to purchase groceries from authorized online retailers, so we analyzed benefits redeemed through online purchasing.

 

05/13/2025
Basic page Report Series - Benefit Redemption Patterns in SNAP

We periodically examine SNAP benefit redemption patterns related to the timing, number, and dollar amount of transactions and the rate at which households spend down and exhaust their monthly benefits. These studies also report on the number of transactions made and the share of benefits redeemed at various types of stores.  

05/13/2025
Resource | Technical Assistance First 100 Days at FNS

President Trump made a commitment to the American people to cut wasteful spending, Make America Healthy Again, and to combat fraud, waste, and abuse—restoring common sense to government. Under the leadership of Secretary Rollins, USDA’s FNS has taken swift and decisive action to be representative of the change the American people voted for.

05/02/2025
Resource | Policy Comment Request - SNAP 2008 Farm Bill Provisions

This collection is for providing SNAP households advance or concurrent notice of state agency action to store unused SNAP benefits offline due to three or more months of account inactivity and for those households to seek reinstatement of benefits prior to permanent expungement. Additionally, this collection is for providing SNAP households advance or concurrent notice prior to the state agency expunging unused SNAP benefits from the household's Electronic Benefit Transfer account due to nine months of account inactivity.

04/24/2025
Resource | Research and Data Erroneous Payments In Childcare Centers Study (EPICCS)

The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 requires federal agencies, like FNS, to give Congress information about payment errors for federal programs, like CACFP. FNS planned this study to estimate payment errors in CACFP child care centers. However, after completing the study, FNS found an error in the method used to estimate nationwide findings from the study data. Because of the error, FNS is not publishing the full study, and will instead present key findings that relate to broad trends instead of specific estimates.

01/14/2025
Resource | Research and Data Feasibility Study: Calculating Meal Claiming Error in Family Day Care Homes That Participate in CACFP Using State Monitoring Review Data

We explored the feasibility of using existing data from state monitoring reviews – a process designed to assess operations and provide real-time technical assistance to family day care homes operating CACFP – to estimate the rate of improper payments in those operations. This study found that flexibility in these reviews and the information they report across states, while beneficial for their main purpose, made the resulting data unusable for estimating a national improper payment rate.

01/14/2025
Page updated: October 14, 2021