In Brief:
- States will have to start paying a portion of SNAP benefit costs if their error rates exceed a level set in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
- Most states currently have higher error rates than the ones laid out in the OBBBA.
- Mississippi is trying to reduce the chances of errors stemming from caseworker and client error via new case management systems and updated software.
It’s been a year of major upheaval for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and state program administrators, who’ve grappled with everything from federal shutdown-induced disruptions to new and upcoming changes made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Among the big changes is the OBBBA’s introduction of financial penalties for states that are over- or underpaying SNAP benefits too often. Starting in FY 2028, states with error rates above 6 percent will have to cover between 5 and 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs. The higher a state’s error rate, the more it will have to pay.
Mississippi has been eyeing the problem of error rates for years, and the new rule is propelling its efforts further. As the state works to bring down errors, it’s making technology and training key pieces of its strategy, investing in new case management software and a slate of new training for government employees and education for SNAP recipients.
SNAP Error Rates Are an Enduring Problem
State program administrators and the U.S. Department of Agriculture say high error rates typically aren’t the result of fraud, but rather of accidental benefit underpayments or overpayments. For example, errors may happen if a caseworker types in a detail wrong, the IT system glitches or a recipient forgets something or isn’t prompt enough in reporting a change of income.
In FY 2024, only eight states had error rates below the OBBBA’s 6 percent mark. Alaska’s error rate is at nearly 25 percent; Washington, D.C.’s is at 17 percent; and California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, and many other states exceed error rates of 10 percent. The average error rate across states and SNAP-eligible territories was nearly 11 percent in FY 2024.
States with a lower error rate will have to start paying the penalty in FY 2028, while states with error rates over 10 percent will get more time but have to pay a larger penalty.
Mississippi’s New Tech
Mississippi is among those that could be on the hook for the highest payment level. The state’s error rate was 10.69 percent in FY 24, and dropped about a percentage point through the first 10 months of FY 25. Officials are optimistic that they can start bringing rates down quickly.
“With all the stuff that we’re going to be doing over the next year, we anticipate that [our error rate] will dip down into that 8 to 10 percent level that would impact the cost share,” says Mark Jones, chief communications officer for the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
One of the largest projects is a software modernization. The state’s case management and eligibility software is nearly 40 years old, and makes processes slow and more error-prone, Jones says.
Currently, caseworkers using these aging IT systems spend 45-60 minutes each time they need to enter a client’s information into the program to get applications approved or recertified. And when case managers must manually enter details, that risks typos and errors.
“Every piece of paper that one of our eligibility workers have to touch and do some manual data entry, that’s a potential for an error,” Jones says.
The issues with this old system became even more apparent during the federal shutdown, which disrupted SNAP benefits nationwide. When the shutdown ended, the state planned to return to providing full benefits, but a technical glitch delayed this and kept residents waiting an additional week.
The software modernization will provide an integrated IT system that can pull relevant information about SNAP recipients from other eligibility programs. That should let caseworkers handle client approval and recertification in just 15-20 minutes, Jones says. The information in the new system will also update in real time, rather than in nightly batches, and its client-facing portal is expected to be more intuitive to use.
The new system is expected to go into user testing in 2026 and go public in February 2027.
Better Training and Other Strategies
Other efforts are underway, too. For one, the state plans to work with a nonprofit over the next few months to study the counties with the lowest and the highest error rates, to identify what is and isn’t working. It plans to look at all possible factors it can that might influence results — whether it’s gaps in training, lack of Internet connectivity or other elements, Jones says.
On top of that, Mississippi has been piloting an income verification program in several parts of the state. The aim is to double-check SNAP clients’ reported incomes against information held by credit bureaus and other sources. That can help catch if clients forgot something and accidentally under- or overstated their incomes.
“It’s not that we don’t trust our clients, but we’re asking for lots of information, and they have to remember a lot of things,” Jones says. Even with such a tool, speaking with clients remains essential to getting the whole picture, he says. The department would need more money before it could bring the verification program statewide.
The state has also been trying to make sure SNAP recipients know how to easily update their information in the state’s current system.
Mississippi already has a mobile-friendly web portal where SNAP recipients can upload photos and report changes in income or household, rather than have to email or call in. The state has been promoting the tool with infographics, videos and more to show residents how to use the webpage and save it to their phone home screens for easy access.
Mississippi has also been retraining state and county staff to ensure they’re asking clients for all the right information, entering details correctly into the system and know how to work with clients who may not fully understand all the systems and terms. This new training kicked off about a year and a half ago, with the state continuing to add components over time.
The hope, Jones says, is that all these strategies together will end up making a significant difference in the effectiveness and efficiency of the state’s SNAP benefits program.
“We’re trying to get as much data, we’re trying to do as much training, and we’re trying to do as much technical upgrades as we can,” Jones says.
