$10.1 billion: Food aid paid in the wrong amount

More than one in ten SNAP dollars went out wrong in fiscal 2025.

FraudBadPublic receipt
SNAP, run by the states

SNAP payment error rate, FY202510.62%¹
Federal threshold6%¹
Improper payments, over + under$10.1B¹
SNAP spending with no local tracking on USAspending, FY2024$84.8B²
Trafficking and fraud share████████████████

fraudbad.comNo taxation without receipts

What happened

USDA audits a sample of SNAP cases in every state each year. For fiscal 2025 it found 10.62 percent of benefits were paid in the wrong amount, $10.1 billion counting both overpayments and underpayments.

Why nobody caught it

States decide who qualifies and how much they get. The federal spending database can't trace SNAP money below the state level.

How sure are we?

Paid without proof

Officially counted as paid in error or without the records to prove it was right. Some is fraud. Nobody has measured how much.

The error rate counts mistakes as well as fraud, and it includes people who were underpaid.

Sources

USDA announces FY2025 state payment error rates in SNAPUSDA Food and Nutrition Service · Jun 24, 2026
Tracking Taxpayer Dollars: fixing a flawed system for federal spending transparencyProject On Government Oversight · Jul 21, 2026

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