Billions Vanish: SNAP Fraud Spirals Out of Control

Yellow sign now accepting food stamps EBT SNAP

Taxpayers are losing billions each year to rampant food stamp fraud, and despite huge spending on anti-fraud efforts, the federal government just poured even more money into a “crackdown” that’s already drawing skepticism from those tired of watching their hard-earned dollars vanish into a broken system.

At a Glance

SNAP fraud and improper payments now cost taxpayers around $10 billion annually.
The USDA has launched a new $5 million Fraud Framework grant to help states fight SNAP fraud.
Benefit theft schemes are growing in scale and sophistication, including EBT card skimming and inside jobs.
Despite tripling anti-fraud spending, bureaucratic waste and fraud continue nearly unchecked.

Billions Lost as SNAP Fraud Surges Despite Record Spending

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has become a runaway train of waste and abuse. Originally created in 1964 to help America’s truly needy, the program now serves nearly 42 million households and costs taxpayers about $94 billion per year. What’s the return on that “investment”? Over $10 billion in improper payments and outright fraud every year. That’s right: for every $10 in your taxes that goes into SNAP, a full dollar is simply lost to fraud, waste, or mismanagement.

The latest official response? The USDA’s $5 million “Fraud Framework” grant program, offering up to $750,000 per state to try to stem the bleeding. It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, and everyone paying attention knows it. The new framework is supposed to help states catch scams at the application stage, beef up internal controls, and educate recipients about fraud in multiple languages. Meanwhile, taxpayers are left wondering why pouring more millions into bureaucratic fixes seems to do nothing to actually stop the bleeding.

These are not isolated incidents. High-profile cases have exposed massive corruption, including a $66 million fraud scheme orchestrated by a USDA employee. EBT card skimming and insider collusion aren’t just occasional slip-ups—they’re symptoms of a system so riddled with loopholes, even the watchdogs can’t keep up. The government brags about reimbursing over $102 million to more than 226,000 victims of benefit theft just since last year. That’s cold comfort to the honest families whose benefits were stolen, who have to wait for bureaucrats to rubber-stamp their reimbursement while they go hungry.

A Decade of Anti-Fraud Efforts, and the Problem Grows

Over the last decade, the government has increased spending on program integrity by an eye-popping 350%. That means for every $1 lost to fraud, SNAP agencies are now spending nearly $4 trying to find it and fix it. Yet the improper payment rate has exploded from just over 2% in 2012 to over 10% in 2023. That’s not progress—that’s a clear sign the system is broken.

States are being pushed to adopt new anti-fraud technologies and oversight measures, but the scale of the problem seems to outpace every fix. Lawmakers are scrambling to introduce legislation like the Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act, hoping to cover the losses from EBT theft. The USDA keeps insisting on “zero tolerance for fraud,” but the facts on the ground tell a different story: trafficking alone is costing $1.3 billion each year, and benefit theft is only getting trickier to detect.

Who Pays the Price? Taxpayers, Families, and Honest Businesses

The real victims of all this are the American taxpayers who foot the bill, along with the truly vulnerable families who depend on SNAP and find themselves caught in the crossfire. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar that doesn’t help a hungry child or a struggling senior. Instead, it lines the pockets of criminals—sometimes with the help of insiders who know exactly how to game the system.

Retailers are also in the mix: while many rely on SNAP purchases, some have been caught trafficking in benefits themselves. The retail sector, the technology industry (now cashing in on new fraud detection systems), and the ever-growing bureaucracy all feed at the trough while taxpayers are told to just “trust the system.” Public trust in SNAP is eroding fast, and with it, support for programs meant to help the genuinely needy. No one benefits from a program so riddled with waste and corruption—except the fraudsters and the bureaucrats who get to “fight” them with even more of your money.