SNAP Includes Extensive Payment Accuracy System | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

In coming weeks the Agriculture Department (USDA) will release overpayment and underpayment error rates for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for fiscal year 2023, based on the program’s extensive quality control (QC) process. The 2022 error rates, the first national and state-level SNAP error rates published since before the COVID-19 pandemic, were somewhat higher than before the pandemic, largely due to states’ ongoing challenges from the pandemic. This trend may continue in the 2023 error rates, as many of those factors were still in effect in 2023. Additionally, a policy change in 2022 — to begin counting the entire benefit amount for cases with certain procedural errors as overpayments even if the household was eligible and received the correct benefit amount based on its income and other circumstances — contributed to higher error rates for 2022 and likely will in 2023 as well. SNAP error rates should be evaluated in the context of the program’s key role in pre

In coming weeks the Agriculture Department (USDA) will release overpayment and underpayment error rates for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for fiscal year 2023, based on the program’s extensive quality control (QC) process. The 2022 error rates, the first national and state-level SNAP error rates published since before the COVID-19 pandemic, were somewhat higher than before the pandemic, largely due to states’ ongoing challenges from the pandemic. This trend may continue in the 2023 error rates, as many of those factors were still in effect in 2023. Additionally, a policy