OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Washington’s food stamp overpayments and underpayments ticked up this year, and the state could face tens of millions of dollars in added costs if accuracy doesn’t improve.
The state’s error rate was 6.98% in the 2025 federal fiscal year, with most mistakes coming from overpayments to recipients under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, according to new federal data.
That’s well below the national average of roughly 10.6%, but still not good enough to allow the state to avert punishment from President Donald Trump’s signature tax cut and spending law that congressional Republicans approved last year.
Across the country, erroneous payments amounted to over $10 billion under the federal nutrition program for low-income residents. In Washington, the program is known as Basic Food.
The “big, beautiful bill,” fundamentally changes how SNAP is paid for.
Under the law, states will have to cover between 5% and 15% of food stamp benefits usually paid for by the feds, depending on how often they make mistakes doling out payments. Mistakes have to be worth at least $57 to count toward a state’s error rate.
Those with error rates between 6% and 8% would pay for 5% of benefits, amounting to more than $90 million in Washington, according to the state Department of Social and Health Services, which administers SNAP here. Between 8% and 10% would cost the state nearly $200 million. And anything over 10% will force the state to shoulder almost $300 million in new costs, a staggering sum for the already-stretched budget.
Some states on the higher end are getting a carveout that allows them additional time to improve before they have to pay extra. Alaska’s error rate, for example, is over 23%.
States have the option to choose between their 2025 and 2026 fiscal year error rates to decide how much they’ll pay. In subsequent years, penalties will be based on the percentage from three years earlier.
Washington falls into that first bracket. The state came close to getting under 6% last year. As it stands, only a handful of states will avoid the federal penalties, while more exceed 10%. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement that the nationwide data is “further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP.”
Washington’s error rate in the 2024 fiscal year was 6.06%. Federal fiscal years start Oct. 1. The state’s error rate was 6.74% in 2023 and 9.33% the year before.
Department of Social and Health Services spokesperson Norah West said Washington “consistently outperforms the national SNAP payment error rate average, thanks to the hard work of our employees, and 2025 was no exception.”
“While our rate is slightly up from the previous year, we continue our work to drive our error rate below 6%,” West added.
Washington’s mistakes could increase in the current fiscal year as the state grapples with implementing new SNAP work requirements included in the law. This will also lead to thousands fewer residents getting the food benefits due not to lack of eligibility but because of paperwork barriers, said Claire Lane, director of the Seattle-based Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition.
States will have to start paying those shares in October 2027. Some may also be liable for a separate penalty, as well, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Addressing the issue
The goal for Republicans is to root out fraud, waste and abuse. But advocates say the error rate is due to unintentional administrative mistakes.
Washington, where food stamp enrollment is dropping, is making an effort to get on the right side of 6%. In this year’s supplemental budget, lawmakers included money for a half-dozen quality control staffers in the state Department of Social and Health Services to focus on reducing the error rate. It’s part of millions of dollars the state is spending to deal with the federal law.
“They’re doing a lot of things to make the process both more transparent to clients and easier for staff to manage, and it’s been really impressive,” Lane said.
States also now need to foot the bill for more of the administrative costs of running the program that the feds previously paid. For Washington, this amounted to over $45 million, included in the most recent state budget passed this year. The spending plan also included $44 million to continue benefits for refugees, asylees and other lawfully present immigrants who lost them under the federal law.
This comes as Washington deals with consistent state budget shortfalls that have forced spending cuts and tax hikes.
“I’m really concerned about the need for our state to make cuts and programs that help people make ends meet and have pathways out of poverty, while we’re also trying to find enough money just to make sure people can eat,” Lane said.
In Congress, Democrats have pushed to delay or reverse the error rate penalties through the federal farm bill, but Republicans have refused. Though the legislation would need Democratic votes in the Senate to pass.
SOURCE: This article was authored by Jake Goldstein-Street of the Washington State Standard part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Author: Washington State Standard
