USDA’s newest accuracy count for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program found that 19 states and Washington, D.C. posted payment error rates of 10 percent or higher in fiscal year 2025. Add Guam, and 21 of the 53 SNAP jurisdictions the agency measures cleared that mark. Nationally, the two kinds of mistakes counted together, benefits paid too high and benefits paid too low, totaled $10.1 billion.
That gap carries more weight this year than in years past. A new federal formula ties part of a state’s future SNAP costs to its own error rate, and every jurisdiction on the double-digit list is now well past the threshold that formula uses.
A 10.62% national rate and a $10.1 billion price tag
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service put the combined national SNAP payment error rate at 10.62% for fiscal 2025, made up of 9.28% in overpayments and 1.33% in underpayments, according to the agency’s fiscal year 2025 payment error rate report. In a June 24 announcement, USDA said the errors amounted to $10.1 billion in combined over- and under-payments nationwide. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the rates are “further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP.”
The paperwork behind the percentage: A payment error usually starts with a recertification packet, an income change or a household detail a caseworker never saw before a benefit went out. The renewal document checklist in The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer lays out what a complete packet needs before it goes back to a state.
The 19 states and the District that crossed 10 percent
USDA’s per-state table shows 19 states at or above a combined 10% error rate for fiscal 2025: Alaska (23.15%), New Mexico (16.81%), Delaware (16.00%), Georgia (15.21%), Illinois (14.67%), Oregon (14.14%), New York (13.18%), Maryland (13.08%), Florida (12.97%), Minnesota (12.58%), Massachusetts (12.49%), Rhode Island (12.42%), Virginia (12.32%), Oklahoma (11.04%), California (10.93%), Hawaii (10.92%), Maine (10.81%), Arizona (10.80%) and Colorado (10.09%). Washington, D.C. posted 18.66%, the second-highest rate USDA recorded anywhere, trailing only Alaska. Guam, a U.S. territory rather than a state, also cleared the mark at 11.70%, which is why USDA’s own count of jurisdictions at 10% or above runs to 21 rather than 20.
Why 6 percent, not 10 percent, is the number that now counts
The double-digit rates draw the headlines, but the dividing line written into this year’s federal law sits lower. Under the accountability provisions of H.R. 1, a state whose SNAP error rate reaches 6% or higher must start covering 5%, 10% or 15% of its own SNAP benefit costs, with the share rising as the error rate does, USDA said in its announcement. States above that line also have to file corrective action plans describing what caused their errors, and the agency can add further financial penalties through SNAP’s existing quality control process. The requirement is due to take effect October 1, 2027 for most states. Every jurisdiction named above is several points past that 6% line, not just the 10% one.
A wide middle band beneath the top 19
Not every jurisdiction landed in the double digits, and not every one stayed under the new 6% cost-share line either. USDA’s table puts 16 states in an 8%-to-under-10% band: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Six more, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington and West Virginia, fell between 6% and 8%. All 22 of those states are still above the 6% line the new cost-share law uses, even though none of them appear on the 10%-and-up list.
A capital city measured on the same formula as a state
Washington, D.C. has no governor or state legislature, but SNAP’s own regulations put it in the same category as the 50 states for exactly this purpose. Federal rule defines a “State” for SNAP administration as any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Virgin Islands, according to the Code of Federal Regulations. That means the District’s 18.66% rate, and the cost-share consequences now attached to it, are measured on the identical formula USDA applied to Alaska, New Mexico and the other 17 states listed above.
The recertification step that keeps a payment accurate
A single SNAP household cannot move a state’s error rate, but its own recertification packet is the one part of the process it controls. A late form, an unreported income change or a missing signature is a common way an accurate payment turns into an inaccurate one on a state’s books.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes a renewal document checklist and a renewal and reporting calendar built to keep that packet complete and on time.
See the renewal document checklist in The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources.
