SNAP payment errors over time

Federal data · data as of 2026-09-29 · answered from public records, not written by AI

Improper payments by fiscal year across all loaded years: from $1.61B (2004) to $10.22B (2025).

Fiscal yearImproper payments
2004$1.61B
2005$1.43B
2006$1.65B
2007$1.79B
2008$1.71B
2009$1.73B
2010$2.19B
2011$2.47B
2012$2.73B
2013$2.55B
2014$2.44B
2015$2.56B
2018$4.01B
2019$4.02B
2020$4.08B
2023$8.77B
2024$10.52B
2025$10.22B

Open the full answer with chart and filters →

How to read this
  • Improper payments are agencies' own estimates from samples (PaymentAccuracy.gov, OMB, under the Payment Integrity Information Act): payments that should not have been made or were the wrong amount, plus unknown payments the agency couldn't show were proper. They are not all losses (underpayments and documentation gaps count) and not fraud as such; only risk-susceptible programs are measured.
  • Years are the fiscal year of the report; each estimate usually samples payments from an earlier 12 months. Programs join and leave the list, so totals across years compare different sets of programs.

How SpendQuery answers · About the data

SNAP payment errors over time · SpendQuery