SNAP Quality Control Annual Reports

SNAP Quality Control Annual Report FY 2023

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) 2023.

State agencies certify households for SNAP benefits and are directly responsible for administering SNAP. In FY 2023, SNAP provided $90 billion¹ in SNAP benefits to needy Americans, more than half of whom are children or elderly adults. Efficient and effective program administration is vital to the continued successful delivery of support to American households.

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) for active cases and case and procedural error rate (CAPER) for negative cases are based on these reviews. The reviews also provide information on the cause of the identified error.

After these state reviews, USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) conducts federal reviews of a subsample of each state’s cases to validate the 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 subsample final determinations of state agency reported samples.

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. The Agricultural Act of 2014² set the QC tolerance level for FY 2014 at $37, excluding small errors below that amount from the calculation of PERs. This tolerance level was adjusted each subsequent fiscal year based on the percentage by which the Thrifty Food Plan was adjusted. Therefore, the tolerance level for FY 2023 was $54.

FNS remains committed to supporting the ongoing efforts of states to improve payment accuracy and ensure program integrity. FNS activities in FY 2023 included funding state exchange activities to support state travel for the purpose of improving effective program administration, providing technical assistance for states through the FNS national and regional offices, and creating error rate dashboards and data mining tools for states to better leverage QC data for ongoing corrective action.

Report Organization

This report groups tables and exhibits into three parts.

Part I provides information on official QC error rates, state reported PER and CAPER, and information on liabilities assessed against states whose PER met or exceeded liability thresholds.

In Part II, the focus is on variances and their sources. A variance can occur when:

• Information verified by the QC reviewer differs from information used at the time of the most recent certification action,
• Policy is misapplied for individual elements of eligibility, or
• The basis of an issuance is incorrect.

Part III 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.

Summary

For FY 2023 the official overpayment and underpayment rates for SNAP active cases was 10.03% and 1.64% respectively. This represented an increase in the overpayment rate and a decrease in the underpayment rate from FY 2022. For FY 2023, the official payment error rate was 11.68%, up from the FY 2022 rate of 11.54%. 

For FY 2023, seven states had a validated payment error rate below 6%, which was the same for FY 2022. Twenty-eight states had a validated payment error rate exceeding 10%, an increase from the 23 states reported in FY 2022. For negative cases, the SNAP CAPER for FY 2023 was 44.52%, an increase from the FY 2022 rate of 44.12%.

Table 1 gives an overview of the preceding information, including historical active and negative case rates.

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.
² H.R.2642 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Agricultural Act of 2014. (2014, Feb. 7).
³ For the years data is omitted and error rates were not announced:

a. Following a series of integrity reviews of QC review systems nationwide, a decision was made to not report national payment error rates for FY 2015 and FY 2016. For tables with historical data on dollar error rates, these years have been omitted. More information on SNAP PER.
b. Due to flexibilities provided to state agencies by Section 4603(a)(2) of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, FNS has determined the agency cannot establish national and state level payment error rates for fiscal year 2020 and 2021. For more information view the announcement.

⁴ National weighted average for actives cases is calculated by weighting each state's error rate by its actual issuance.
⁵ The official payment error rate may not equal the sum of the underpayment and overpayment rates due to rounding.
⁶ A validated national weighted average is calculated by weighting each states’ error rate by its actual caseload.