The Truth About The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Posted by Michael McKenna on Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Millions of families in the United States continue to struggle to put food on the table. Today, 15 percent of all Americans -- more than 45 million -- rely on SNAP benefits.
SNAP benefits (formerly known as “food stamps”) play a crucial role in making sure that, even in tough times, kids are still getting the food they need. Three-quarters of all SNAP benefits go to families with kids and according to a recent study in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, half of all American children today will live in households that have used food stamps before they turn 20. The program is credited with decreasing the child poverty rate by a full three percentage points.
As this program plays a critical role in reducing child poverty, increasing SNAP participation is a core element of our No Kid Hungry state strategy. This critical nutrition program, however, is increasingly under attack. As an editorial Baltimore Sun this weekend pointed out, it’s become a trend to vilify people relying on food assistance, “condemning SNAP participants as free-loaders or criminals on little or no evidence.”
What the evidence shows: The SNAP program is efficient and effective with historically low error rates. Here are six quick facts to know when talking about fraud in the SNAP program:
- Error Rate At Historic Low: In 2010, the SNAP program had a payment error rate of 3.81%, the “lowest rate in the history of the program.” [USDA]
- Error Rate Includes Underpayments: The payment error rate includes both overpayments as well as underpayments (which make up approximately 20% of the error rate.) [USDA]
- Error Rates Primarily Administrative: The majority of mistakes are the result of administrative mistakes. As the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities points out, “Relatively few of these errors represent dishonesty or fraud on the part of recipients, such as recipients lying to eligibility workers to get more food stamps. The overwhelming majority result from honest mistakes by recipients, eligibility workers, data entry clerks, or computer programmers. In recent years, states have reported that about half of the dollar value of overpayments and almost 90 percent of the dollar value of underpayments were their fault, rather than recipients' fault. Much of the rest of overpayments resulted from innocent errors by households facing a program with complex rules.” [CBPP]
- Fraud Rate At All-Time Low: The SNAP program has a fraud rate of only about 1 percent, down 56% since 1999. [ABC News]
- SNAP Benefits Limited: SNAP benefits cannot be used to buy anything you want. According to strict program guidelines, benefits can be spent on groceries such as bread, cereal, meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables. They may not be used for beer, wine, cigarettes, pet food, soap, vitamins, hot food, paper products or cosmetics. [Program Guidelines]
- Hawaiian Vacations Don’t Make The Cut: Politifact checked a recent claim by Newt Gingrich that people “take their food stamp money and use it to go to Hawaii.” The fact-checking site Politifact gave this claim a “pants on fire” status; people may not buy airline tickets with their SNAP benefits. (The origin of this rumor may have been an investigative piece done by a St. Louis television station that found some Missouri food stamp funds had been used in Hawaii. Politifact found a likely explanation was they’d been “spent by members of the armed services just transferred there who are permitted to use their Missouri benefits until their Hawaii benefits kick in.” [Politifact]
December 6, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: food stamps, no kid hungry, snap
Comments
1 reader comment so far.
Not everyone who needs snap benefits get them. I have a friend who was getting assistance for food, but they were taken way after only 6 months. Her income and situation has not changed. She did all she was supposed to do, and after making her wait for 3 months, she was refused. How can she qualify for 6 months then they yank it from her. All the red tape is bullshit. People are starving.
Posted by Debra Klusman on May 2, 2012
Post a comment
All fields are required (your e-mail address will not be displayed)