Payment Errors

As part of the quality control system, FNS and states identify payment errors. There are two types of payment errors:

Underpayments

When a household receives less benefits than they are entitled to receive.

Overpayments

When a household receives more benefits than they are entitled.

Payment errors are largely unintentional and may be on the part of the state agency or the SNAP household. For example, the state agency incorrectly calculates a household’s expenses, or a client forgets to provide the state with an update on their income.

SNAP Quality Control Process

Each state agency starts by reviewing a select number of household case files each month. Collectively, states review about 50,000 cases each year. USDA conducts a second review of approximately half of the state cases,

When a state agency identifies an 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 June, USDA analyzes the final data collected from the states and uses that to determine national and state payment error rates.

Addressing Payment Errors

USDA is committed to supporting state agencies as they safeguard hard-earned taxpayer dollars by minimizing payments errors and improving program accuracy. Through quality control, USDA helps state agencies identify the root causes of their payment errors and assist them in developing a corrective action plan to improve the accuracy of their eligibility and benefit determinations. USDA also provides ongoing monitoring, training, and technical assistance to state agencies and work to improve the quality control system by developing new policies and improved tools designed to prevent payment errors.

Assessing Liabilities

USDA is required to determine a state’s financial responsibility when that state’s SNAP payment error rate exceeds the national payment error rate and meets additional statutory criteria. States can either pay the determined amount to USDA immediately or settle by investing 50% of the amount in activities to address the root cause of the errors and improve the state’s administration of SNAP. The remaining 50% is held “at-risk” for future payment. If, in a third consecutive year, the state is determined financially responsible for poor performance, USDA collects the previously held amount. It's important to note that by law, state agencies are responsible for monitoring and improving SNAP administration. While the federal government oversees the program, the states are responsible for the specifics of ensuring accurate benefits are provided to eligible households, providing states with autonomy in addressing and rectifying errors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SNAP's quality control system?

The SNAP quality control system measures how accurately SNAP state agencies determine a household’s eligibility and benefit amount. It consists of both state agency reviews and federal reviews. The key objectives of the quality control system are:

• To measure the accuracy of states’ SNAP eligibility and benefit determinations.
• To provide program data timely and regularly for continuous program improvement through corrective actions that help ensure benefit and eligibility accuracy.

What is the purpose of the quality control process?

By law, each state agency is responsible for monitoring and improving its administration of SNAP. As a part of this, the SNAP quality control process is used to measure how accurately a state agency performs the crucial function of determining SNAP households’ eligibility and benefit amounts. This is to ensure eligible SNAP recipients get the correct amount of benefits. The data collected is also used to identify areas for states to improve their programs.

What does a state’s payment error rate measure?

The SNAP payment error rates measure how accurately state agencies determine household eligibility and benefit amounts. This includes both overpayments — when households receive more benefits than they are entitled to — and underpayments — when households receive less benefits than they are entitled to.

How are SNAP payment error rates calculated?

USDA determines national and state error rates. First, state agencies review a sample of their eligibility and benefit amount determinations for accuracy. Then USDA reviews a subsample of those cases to validate.

• USDA calculates state payment error rates using a statistical analysis called regression. The regression analysis is performed using both the federal and state case review data.
• USDA determines the national payment error rate by calculating the weighted average of all individual state payment error rates. Weighting is determined by a state’s proportion of total SNAP benefit issuances that fiscal year.

Are the error rates the same thing as fraud?

No, SNAP error rates are not fraud rates; payment accuracy errors in SNAP are largely unintentional and can happen in one of two ways:

• An applicant is determined eligible when they are not.
• An eligible participant is certified to receive either more or less benefits than they are entitled to.

SNAP error rates reflect program waste. USDA takes payment errors very seriously and will continue to work with states to address the root causes of these mistakes.

What happens if state agencies have high payment error rates?

USDA requires state agencies to develop and execute a corrective action plan if they have a payment error rate of 6% or more or if they do not review at least 98% of their required sample size of eligibility and benefit determinations. Any proposed corrective actions must help lower the error rate and address any root causes of the errors.

Are SNAP recipients responsible for paying back benefits they incorrectly received? Do they get repaid for benefits less than what they were entitled to?

By law, states are required to correct payment errors — overpayments must be paid back to the state and the state must reimburse participants for underpayments — so that each household gets the correct amount based on their eligibility.

How rigorous is the process that produces the SNAP payment error rate?

The SNAP quality control process is a rigorous, two-tier system, that involves both state and federal reviews to assess the accuracy of household eligibility and benefit determinations nationwide. Every year, states review a total of 50,000 SNAP cases nationwide, and USDA conducts a re-review of about half of those cases to ensure accurate reporting by states. Quality control reviewers follow established processes for assessing the accuracy of eligibility and benefit decisions, which include verifying data on household circumstances through a variety of sources and directly interviewing households to confirm case information.