For the first time in the more than 50-year history of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, states are now financially on the hook for how accurately they manage food benefit payments, and the data being collected right now will determine how much they owe.
The USDA released its annual SNAP payment error rate report on June 24, 2026, revealing a national average error rate of 10.62 percent for fiscal year 2025 — far above the 6 percent threshold that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) set as the trigger for financial penalties. Beginning October 1, 2027, states with error rates at or above that threshold will be required to cover a portion of their own SNAP benefit costs — from 5 percent for states with rates between 6 and 8 percent, to 15 percent for states above 10 percent.
