If Florida doesn’t lower its SNAP error rates, the state could have to pay as much as $1 billion to continue to participate in the federal food security program.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Chair Nikki Fried says the high error rate might not be due to mundane mistakes but rather a tactic to limit participation in the federal benefit, formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“I believe this is intentional — that they intentionally are making errors, knowing that there is a possibility of funds being held back because of the errors,” Fried told the Phoenix Thursday.
Fried has no proof of the allegations.
Payment error rates measure the accuracy of each state’s eligibility and benefit determinations. Error rates include overpayments and underpayments.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that Florida’s SNAP error rate for fiscal year 2025 was 12.97%, above the national rate of 10.2%, and so high it could put Florida on the hook to, for the first time, contribute to food costs for the program.
“I believe that,” said Fried, a former Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, a statewide elected Cabinet position. Fried served on the Cabinet alongside the governor from 2018 to 2022, when she resigned to run for governor. She lost in the Democratic primary.
Specifically, Fried tussled with DeSantis after the governor opted not to sign up for $820 million in federal food aid for children for state FY 2021-22, Fried and other Democrats at the time protested, as explained by Florida Politics. Florida was the only state at the time that didn’t apply for the money.
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The DeSantis administration subsequently did apply for the food aid, but Fried wrote to DeSantis two months later demanding to know why some families still had not received all funds approved the year before, covering the 2020-21 school year and summer 2021.
Fried recalled Thursday her many disagreements with DeSantis over the need to take full advantage of programs designed to provide nutritious food to Florida families at risk of hunger.
“He just doesn’t care,” she offered.
“The problem is that this has been a consistent drum beat that I’ve heard from them for years,” she said, noting the Republican governor doesn’t support expanding Medicaid to lower-income childless adults because the safety net program is for those who need it the most.
At the same time, he has allowed people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to linger on a Medicaid waitlist for services for because the programs are underfunded, Fried said.
While DeSantis has been governor for just eight years people with intellectual disabilities have been on the Medicaid wait list for decades.
“You know, all of the things for our most vulnerable portions of our society, they cut corners,” she said.
States with SNAP error rates that exceed 6% will have to begin contributing to the costs of food in FY 2028, which begins Oct. 1, 2017.
The cost-sharing requirement is in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which slashes spending on the food security program by $156 billion over a decade.
States with SNAP payment error rates above 6% will need to pay at least 5% of the cost of benefits. States with error rates between 8% and 10% will be on the hook for 10% of the program costs. States like Florida, with error rates above 10%, will have to cover 15%, which accounts for the $1 billion estimate.
While still high, the 12.97% error rate is a reduction from the previous year which was 15.1 % payment error rate.
The OBBBA also increased states’ share of administrative costs to participate in the program from 50% to 75%, which, according to the DeSantis administration, accounts for about a $50 million cost shift to the state.
Appearing before a House Health Care Budget Subcommittee earlier this year, DCF Assistant Secretary for Administration Chad Barrett tried to soften the bad financial news by telling members, “Florida has the lowest administrative rate in the country” at $13 per case per month.
Instead of being assuaged, however, Tampa Republican and Health Care Budget Subcommittee Karen Gonzalez Pittman pressed Barrett as to whether there was connection between the state’s low SNAP administrative costs and its high error rate.
“So, would it be better to have better administration than to pay out penalties?” she asked.
No direct answer was offered at the time.
The Republic-led Legislature did pump into DCF’s budget and additional $4 million for an artificial intelligence-driven system to help the state catch errors.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
