SNAP Quality Control Annual Reports

SNAP Quality Control Annual Report FY 2022

Background

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Quality Control (QC) Annual Report presents official quality control error rates and other statistical data derived from the SNAP QC reviews conducted for fiscal year (FY) 2022.

Each state agency conducts monthly QC reviews of a statistical sample of households participating in SNAP (active cases) and households for which participation was denied, suspended, or terminated (negative cases). These reviews measure the validity of SNAP cases at a given time. The reported state payment error rate (PER) and case and procedural error rate (CAPER) are based on these reviews. The reviews also provide information on the cause of the identified error.

After these state reviews, federal reviews of each state’s sample are conducted to validate each state agency’s error rate. The official rates for active and negative cases - PER and CAPER -listed in this report are based upon these federal final determinations of state agency subsamples.

In FY 2022, SNAP provided $76 billion¹ in SNAP benefits to needy Americans, more than half of whom are children and the elderly. Efficient and effective program administration is vital to the continued successful delivery of support to American households.

State agencies certify households for SNAP benefits and are directly responsible for administering SNAP. FNS remains committed to supporting the ongoing efforts of states to increase the accuracy of SNAP certification actions and ensure program integrity.

FNS has long focused on providing states with support to help improve payment accuracy. FNS activities in FY 2022 included: funding for state exchange activities, technical assistance for states through the national and regional offices, and support for utilizing QC data for ongoing corrective action.

The Agricultural Act of 2014 set the QC tolerance level for the exclusion of small payment errors at $37 for FY 2014. This tolerance level is adjusted each subsequent fiscal year by the percentage by which the Thrifty Food Plan is adjusted. The tolerance level for FY 2022 is $48.

Report Organization

This report groups tables and exhibits into three parts.

Part I of the annual report provides information on official QC error rates, state-reported PER and CAPER, and information on liabilities assessed against states whose PERs exceed liability thresholds. The PER is the sum of the individual overpayment and underpayment error rates. In this report, all references to "payment error rate" should be taken as the sum of the overpayment and underpayment error rates.

Part II of the annual report provides information on variances and their sources. A variance can occur in several situations:

• When information verified by the QCreviewer differs from information used at the time of the most recent certificationaction,
• When policy has been misapplied for individual elements of eligibility, or
• When the basis of an issuance is incorrect.

Part III of the annual report provides information on state sampling parameters of the active and negative case universes. For active cases, this includes information on completion rates and standard errors for the reported state and official federal PERs.

Highlights

• Due to the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, FNS determined that the agency could not establish national and state-level PERs for FYs 2020 and 2021. As a result, FY 2022 is the first year for which FNS is able to establish national and state PERs since FY 2019.
• For FY 2022, the official overpayment and underpayment rates for SNAP active cases are 9.84 percent and 1.70 percent respectively. This represents an increase in both the overpayment rate and the underpayment rate. For FY 2022, the official payment error rate is 11.54 percent, up from the FY 2019 rate of 7.36 percent.
• For FY 2022, seven states have a validated payment error rate below 6 percent, a decrease from the 17 states reported in FY 2019. Twenty-three states have a validated payment error rate exceeding 10 percent, an increase from the 10 states reported in FY 2019.
• For negative cases, the SNAP CAPER for FY 2022 is 44.12 percent, an increase from the FY 2019 rate of 34.01 percent.

¹ The annual dollar amount of SNAP benefits in this QC Annual Report excludes Emergency Allotments. Emergency Allotments are a part of the Disaster SNAP (D-SNAP) program.