The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as the Food Stamps Program, stands as a vital support system for millions of Americans struggling to put food on the table. But recent reports and a sharp debate at both state and federal levels have thrown a spotlight on the program’s vulnerabilities—especially when it comes to payment errors and fraud. In Florida and across the nation, officials, experts, and recipients themselves are grappling with the challenge of balancing access for those in need with the urgent demand to root out waste, abuse, and criminal activity.
According to a recent analysis by Florida TaxWatch, the Sunshine State faces a particularly steep climb. The nonpartisan watchdog group warns that Florida must “clamp down” on SNAP payment errors—especially overpayments that often result from government processing mistakes, missed or misreported changes by recipients, and, in some cases, outright fraud. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) echoes this concern, pointing out that most SNAP errors stem from unverified eligibility. That includes trouble confirming an applicant’s citizenship, education enrollment, employment status, financial situation, household size, identity, or residency—basic facts that can make or break a case for assistance.
Children make up the largest share of SNAP recipients in Florida, accounting for 39% of all beneficiaries. Elderly individuals represent 20%, while non-elderly people with disabilities comprise another 10%. Over the past decade, the number of Florida households relying on SNAP has fluctuated between 1.5 million and 2 million. In the 2023 fiscal year alone, Floridians received more than $6 billion in SNAP benefits, with the average recipient getting about $191 per month. This uptick was fueled in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed demand for food assistance higher and brought extra federal support through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.
But the landscape is shifting. A new GOP tax bill, passed in July 2025, hands states like Florida more responsibility for determining who should receive welfare benefits. That means Florida could face a dramatic increase in state spending on SNAP—unless it manages to reduce its persistently high payment error rate. Despite ranking only 18th nationwide in terms of SNAP reliance, Florida is among the states with the highest error rates, according to Florida TaxWatch.
Nationally, the debate over SNAP fraud and error has become a flashpoint. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a hard line, arguing that the program is “riddled with fraud that must be stopped.” As reported by the Associated Press, Trump’s appointees are pushing an enforcement-first approach, claiming that fraud is a major and costly problem perpetrated by everyone from individual recipients to organized crime syndicates and unscrupulous retailers.
“We know there are instances of fraud committed by our friends and neighbors, but also transnational crime rings,” said Jennifer Tiller, senior advisor to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in a December 15, 2025 interview. The administration’s stance has sparked both support and skepticism. Some experts do agree that SNAP fraud is a real problem, but they question whether its scale is as massive as officials claim. “If you’re spending $100 billion on anything, you’re going to have some leakage,” observed Christopher Bosso, a public policy professor at Northeastern University who has written a book on SNAP.
To put the numbers in perspective: About $100 billion is spent on SNAP each year, with $94 billion going directly to benefits and the remainder covering administrative costs. Roughly 42 million Americans—about one in eight—receive SNAP, averaging $190 per person per month. The number of recipients closely mirrors the U.S. poverty rate, which hovers between 36 million and 43 million depending on the metric used.
Federal law requires most SNAP households to report their income and basic information every four to six months, and to be fully recertified at least annually. The Trump administration has demanded that states provide detailed data on recipients—including Social Security numbers, birth dates, and immigration status—to help detect fraud. Republican-led states (and North Carolina) have complied, but most Democratic-led states are fighting back in court, citing concerns about recipient privacy.
From the data it has received, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that about 186,000 deceased people—roughly 1% of participants in those states—were still receiving benefits. Another 500,000 people (2.7%) were found to be getting benefits in more than one jurisdiction. The USDA estimates that the nationwide total for fraud and undetected errors could reach $9 billion or more each year, though it has yet to release detailed breakdowns or clarify how these figures were calculated. Democratic-led states counter that they already have robust systems to catch wrongdoing and want more transparency from the USDA about its methods.
The forms of SNAP fraud are as varied as they are troubling. Benefits are distributed via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, which recipients use like debit cards in stores. Organized crime groups have been known to install skimmers on EBT readers to steal card information and drain recipients’ accounts. In one case, a Romanian man pleaded guilty to skimming more than 36,000 card numbers over three years in California. There have also been cases of bribery: a USDA employee admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for providing registration numbers for EBT card readers, which were then placed illegally in New York delis. Authorities say more than $30 million passed through those fraudulent terminals. In Ohio, three individuals were charged with using stolen benefits to buy large quantities of energy drinks and candy, allegedly to resell them for profit.
Mark Haskins, a former USDA investigator, believes that fraud by legitimate recipients—such as persuading store employees to ring up non-grocery items as eligible purchases or selling benefit cards—may actually be more costly than schemes run by organized crime. He’s blunt in his assessment: “The system is corrupt. It doesn’t need a fix here and there, it needs a complete overhaul.” Haskins argues for stricter requirements, like reducing the number of participating retailers and making recipients reapply more frequently, even if that means some qualified people have a harder time accessing benefits.
In response to concerns about misuse, several states are set to ban the use of SNAP for certain junk food products starting January 1, 2026. The hope is that these restrictions will help curb fraud and ensure benefits are used as intended.
Still, not everyone agrees on the scope of the problem. The USDA’s last published report on SNAP fraud, covering 2015 to 2017, found that about 1.6% of benefits were stolen from recipients’ accounts. Between October 2022 and December 2024, the government replaced $323 million in stolen benefits—about 24 cents for every $100 in SNAP issued, though officials believe this is an undercount. Advocates and researchers argue that, while any fraud is troubling, it’s not as widespread as critics claim. Dartmouth economist Patricia Anderson points out that the maximum benefit for a family of four is about $1,000 a month, making large-scale fraud less lucrative unless run by organized crime.
For recipients like Jamal Brown, a 41-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, the realities of the program are more personal. Brown has seen people sell benefits to bodegas for cash and has had his own benefits stolen by a skimmer. He’s also experienced the frustration of benefits being cut off due to administrative errors. “It’s always something that goes wrong,” Brown said. “Unfortunately.”
As Florida and the nation wrestle with the twin imperatives of safeguarding taxpayer dollars and supporting the most vulnerable, the future of SNAP will likely hinge on finding a balance—one that roots out abuse without punishing those who need help the most.
