* Remember Rich’s column from last summer about Illinois’ SNAP payment error rate?…
The costs to Illinois’ government because of the new Republican congressional budget reconciliation law will be steep. […]
If current trends continue, Illinois will have to pay 15% of the total SNAP benefit costs, which, according to the governor’s office, would be $705 million a year.
The reason the state is on the hook for 15% of benefit costs is because of its high SNAP payment error rate, which stood at 11.56% in fiscal year 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state’s error rates for underpayments to SNAP beneficiaries was less than 1%, but its overpayment error rate was 10.6%.
The new federal law requires that states with SNAP payment error rates of 10% or higher must pay 15% of SNAP benefit costs. The state will struggle mightily to afford that, so lots of people may lose their food aid if things don’t change. […]
If Illinois could reduce its error rate to above 8% but below 10% — on par with states like Michigan, Ohio and Texas then it would pay 10% of benefit costs, or $470 million a year.
* Numbers released yesterday show Illinois’ SNAP payment error rate hit 14.67 percent in FY2025. WTVO…
Illinois could face hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties or lost federal funding tied to its administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as new federal data shows the state has one of the highest payment error rates in the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent SNAP Quality Control report found Illinois posted a 14.67% payment error rate in fiscal year 2025, well above the national average of 10.62%. The rate reflects how often benefits are issued incorrectly, including both overpayments and underpayments. […]
Under changes approved in a 2025 federal law, states with high SNAP error rates could be required to cover a share of program costs. Illinois’ current trajectory could put it on the hook for roughly $700 million annually if its error rate remains above 10%.
The policy establishes a sliding scale: states with error rates above 10% may be responsible for 15% of total SNAP benefit costs, while lower error rates would reduce that share. […]
Illinois received about $4.7 billion in SNAP funding last year, meaning even a partial cost shift could have major budget implications.
* The AP…
An exception in the federal law gives states with the highest error rates more time to try to reduce them. States with error rates of at least 13.34% last year will receive a delay in their cost-share requirements until at least the 2029 fiscal year.
The delay will benefit Alaska, which had the highest error rate of over 23%. Other jurisdictions receiving a one-year, cost-share delay are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon and the District of Columbia. […]
A recent survey of state agencies that run SNAP found that most already are analyzing the root causes of their payment errors. The mistakes appear to be evenly attributable to SNAP recipients and program administrators, and many states are planning to increase staff focused on eliminating errors, according to the survey released by American Public Human Services Association.
But states also are planning for cuts, if they are forced to pay a portion of SNAP benefits. More than a quarter of the states responding to the survey said they could consider narrowing eligibility policies, and four states said they could consider withdrawing from SNAP entirely. The report did not list those states.
* US Department of Agriculture…
In addition to this matching fund requirement, states with PER at or above 6% threshold are required to submit a Corrective Action Plan to USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration detailing how they will address the root cause of their errors. Some of these states may also be liable for a separate financial penalty as part of the SNAP quality control process.
* House Minority Leader Tony McCombie…
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the annual Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment error rates (PER) showing Illinois’ rate as one of the highest at 14.67%:
“Illinois’ SNAP error rate has skyrocketed because of years of mismanagement, and our most vulnerable will be paying the price.
“This isn’t about taking benefits away from families who legitimately need assistance. It’s about making sure the program is administered properly and taxpayer dollars are protected. Fraud, waste, and abuse have no place in government.
“Governor Pritzker can’t blame the federal government for Illinois’ failures. If families lose benefits, it will be because he refuses to fix one of the highest error rates in the nation, that responsibility rests squarely with him.”
Thoughts?
…Adding…. Gov. Pritzker today…
We have worked steadfastly really, every day. Our Department of Human Services and others have worked together to make sure that we’re upgrading the technology, upgrading the number of people that we have applied to the SNAP error rate from that time to now, and we’ve made a significant dent from that time to now. That number is now significantly down from not just the 14% but below the 11 plus percent that was originally reported.
…Adding…. The governor did not have the new error rate number, but stood by his claim that the rate was below FY24.
- 44 - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 10:40 am:
The data used to calculate the error rate should be used to stop the state from overpaying. No way this should be ongoing. If they can calculate it, they can fix it. Jees. And don’t ask for more $ until you fix this…
- Bagger Vance - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 11:07 am:
The current secretary of DHS was the deputy secretary of DHS Operations who was responsible for the high error rates to begin with.
Dulce Quintero has a bachelors degree in Psychology and Spanish. Not a masters degree in public administration or anything remotely close to the experience required to run an agency the size and complexity of DHS. Less than a decade of state govt experience.
This is a repeat of the mistake they made with DCFS.
“Personnel is policy.”
At this point they should put Dulce on notice that $700M mistakes are not okay, bring in someone with the skills needed to focus on fixing this problem, and start a genuine national search for someone who can do the work. This cannot continue.
Pritzker is great at holding press conferences, until recently very good at passing legislation, but his team has consistently struggled to actually administer government:
Veteran’s Affairs
DCFS
IDES
DHS
IDOC
ISBE
Maybe the one bright spot is DCEO, but even that agency has problems, you just never hear about it because companies usually do not complain to reporters, they just leave.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 11:07 am:
mcCombie is wrong - it is about taking benefits from the deserving, but that didn’t mean Illinois had to make it easier on them.
- Irreverent - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 11:07 am:
@44 One would expect that to be a goal. The people finding the overpayments would also be different people, with different expertise, working with different systems, than the people initially submitting them. It takes time for systems to be analyzed, for feedback to be developed, then feedback to be implemented. Some of the state is still working off mainframes. It’s easy enough to look back and tie that data together in retrospect. It’s much harder to do it in real-time without starving people who need help.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 11:21 am:
===If they can calculate it, they can fix it.===
That’s not really how this process works.
===If families lose benefits, it will be because he refuses to fix one of the highest error rates in the nation, that responsibility rests squarely with him.”===
The super minority leader gets it. Governors own. I’m quite certain she’s got nothing to offer that’s constructive or would help fix the issue and she certainly doesn’t care that she’s blindly following the administration that did this to our state and created this problem, but!
Governors do own.
So is going to be held accountable at DHS?
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 11:22 am:
“… years of mismanagement … .”
You’re speaking of the lack of headcount under Blago / Quinn, and Rauner’s DoIT / ERPs, correct?
- illinifan - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 12:07 pm:
At one time with DHS there was a strong emphasis on reducing SNAP error rates though targeted reviews of cases, increased training, competition between offices etc. I have been away from the process for quite a while so I am not sure if any emphasis and internal reviews continue and what the ratio of supervisor to worker is. Time to focus though and get these numbers under control. We were freaking out if our error approached 10%
- City Zen - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 12:08 pm:
==Rauner’s DoIT==
Even to this day, there is still a pretty large disconnect between DoIT and DHS.
DHS still has mainframe systems and Lotus Notes databases supported by folks nearing retirement. None of their problems are easy to fix because no one wants to own the problems. DHS knows health, DoIT knows IT, neither knows both.
- Huh? - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 12:19 pm:
“Even to this day, there is still a huge disconnect between DoIT and the rest of State government.”
Fixed it for ya.
- King Louis XVI - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 12:21 pm:
–Pritzker is great at holding press conferences, until recently very good at passing legislation, but his team has consistently struggled to actually administer government:–
This. Everyday.
The only professional, competent staff is found in the press office.
- Frida's Boss - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 12:44 pm:
JB will not take ownership of this.
He will say it is the Trump administration’s fault.
- Perrid - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:00 pm:
@44 - auditors doing a deep dive on a sample with information that the rest of the system didn’t have doesn’t mean that it’s easy to fix.
If the IRS has a dozen experts check your taxes and finds you made a mistake, it doesn’t mean it was an obvious mistake you could easily fix.
- West Side the Best Side - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:16 pm:
The hypocrisy of a Republican being concerned for “our most vulnerable” is just priceless.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:24 pm:
===The only professional, competent staff is found in the press office. ===
If we’re getting nit picky, they did sorta lie about his trip to the hospital a couple of months ago. That was a very unforced error.
As the Pritzker administration continues I continue to see it as a lot of lost opportunities simply because Pritzker started putting together a great team and then stopped short when it came to the folks running state agencies.
- CivicWhitaker - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:51 pm:
To be fair, HB1 raised the administrative burden to get SNAP benefits (which was already high) and that will likely increase error rates.
There are ways to make systems more human centered (which would also lower error rates) but that’s just a patch to the larger problem.
- Responsa - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:52 pm:
Yes I do remember Rich’s column about this from last year. Too bad nobody in state government paid any attention and even allowed the SNAP payment error rate to get worse. Embarrassing.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:53 pm:
===To be fair, HB1 raised the administrative burden ===
The Biden administration changed the definition of errors, which helped shoot up our rate.
HB1 imposed penalties.
- Almost the Weekend - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 1:59 pm:
This is just as bad as the DOC allowing prison guards to use PTO and come into work on the same day for Overtime.
Pritzker has not done a good job from an administrative standpoint of putting qualified people in roles to ensure government is operating better.
How is it possible underpayments are 1%, but overpayments are 10%? This does not make sense.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 2:08 pm:
===This does not make sense. ===
It’s the case in most states.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 2:32 pm:
===This is just as bad as the DOC allowing prison guards to use PTO and come into work on the same day for Overtime.===
These sorts of shenanigans have been going on at DOC seemingly forever. Under Thompson, “goo goos” with proof of political / patronage misconduct were “offered” Worker’s Comp in return for not being fired after blowing the whistle.
Manual prison timekeeping has been an issue, apparently, since the Ninian Edwards era. DOC was supposed to automate it, but apparently it was abandoned. Properly designed software would prohibit such misuses. Anyone have any insight on that?
- clec dcn - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 2:37 pm:
Having done the work for 34 years and supervised it errors happen 2 ways. The customer makes an error or the caseworker. In the old days if the customer made an error it was still an error. Not sure today but this is a real double edge sword. If you want to make sure all the i’ are dotted and t’s crossed, almost nothing is error free. The pace required for caseworkers to process applications is quite fast. I am not sure the way to approach it but slapping hands will not work. Repeatable processes and checks go a long way they must be streamlined.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Jun 25, 26 @ 4:44 pm:
No comment on Quintero specifically but in 22 years with DHS my experience is that secretaries are pretty far removed from program operations.