Florida is bungling its food assistance money; it could hurt 3 million

The Agrculture Department says the error rate in the SNAP food program for low-income families is high and might trigger a nearly $1 billion penalty.

Florida is not performing well when it comes to managing food assistance money.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its fiscal year 2025 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payment error rates that measure how accurately states determine who qualifies for SNAP and how much they should receive.

Florida’s error rate for 2025 was 12.97%, which covers both overpayments and underpayments. The national payment error rate for fiscal year 2025 is 10.62%. The 12.97% is more than double the federal threshold of 6% percent that Congress says is acceptable.

The result is the state will have to pay a nearly $1 billion penalty and subsequently could impact the 3 million mostly lower-income Floridians, who rely on that program. Florida is now required to submit a corrective action plan to the USDA detailing a solution. 

Florida’s rate is actually down from the 15.1% error rate the year before, it’s still above a 10% threshold that would require Florida and other states to contribute to the program’s future costs. That would come to about $984 million for Florida in the fiscal year that begins in 2028.

Change is part of President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

This change is part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” that focused on finding waste, fraud and abuse in numerous federal programs.

“These payment error rates are further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

Critics predict huge cost shift to state

The Florida Policy Institute, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, called the change a “massive cost shift” from the federal government to the state.

“Now, unless Florida lawmakers act to raise revenue to preserve SNAP and make up for the loss in federal funds, we will see a cut to SNAP program eligibility or benefits, or cuts in other areas of the state budget,” said Holly Bullard, FPI’s chief strategy and development officer.

The Legislature did approve about $4 million in the new state budget for improved methods of finding errors so the rate will go down further.

The federal bill pushed by Trump also cuts SNAP nationally by about $187 billion over 10 years. In Florida, in the first five months since the bill took effect, participation in SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) has dropped by about 10% statewide — more than 277,000 people.

Curt Anderson is the Policy and Politics Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY at https://tallahassee.com/newsletters.