Naples, FL — In response to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released earlier today placing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) error rate for FY 2019 (spanning from October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019, all pre-COVID 19)at 7.36 percent, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) issued the following statement.
“Too often we hear the claim that welfare fraud doesn’t exist, but once again we see proof positive that the problem is alive and well, with $4 billion annually in food stamp funds being diverted away from the truly needy and wasted on people who are not eligible,” said Sam Adolphsen, policy director at FGA. “Most SNAP welfare fraud is the result of eligibility errors like this report shows. Instead of taking action to combat this fraud, Democrats are ignoring this report and instead proposing bills that attempt to keep the Trump administration from implementing rules that will clean this mess up and protect SNAP resources for the truly needy.”
Today’s report revealed that in 2019, 52 percent of incorrect payments were caused by state agency error, while 48 percent were caused by recipient error. To combat these erroneous payments, USDA will issue $43.5M in sanctions to 12 high-error states, seven of which were sanctioned last year.
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The Foundation for Government Accountability is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that specializes in health care, welfare, and work reform. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
