More than one out of every $10 in federal food stamp payments was made in error last year—and states with high fraud rates will soon be paying a hefty price.
The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that payments made through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, were rife with waste once again in 2025. Though the figures vary widely from state to state, the USDA calculates that 10.62 percent of all food stamp payments were made in error—a slight decrease from the 10.93 percent error rate recorded in 2024.
