Reducing Payment Error Rates for SNAP

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides a critical lifeline to millions of people. Because of its scale, the program also represents a massive administrative undertaking for state governments across the country. Now, states will have new challenges. H.R. 1 fundamentally changes the way the SNAP program is funded by shifting much of the cost of SNAP benefits to states based on their Payment Error Rate (PER), a measure of incorrect benefit amounts issued to participants due to administrative errors, client confusion, or other aspects of program administration.

The financial stakes of this policy change are impossible to overstate: For many states, anticipated penalties are in the hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. As such, lowering their PER has become the primary concern of SNAP leaders across the country.

States need to meet this moment with thoughtful, targeted, and effective approaches to error rate reduction that keep as many eligible people connected to benefits as possible. Based on Code for America’s 15 years of designing human-centered solutions to improve benefits administration, here are our recommendations for three of the most impactful levers states can use to improve their PER and build resilience for future program changes.

1. Use data to ruthlessly prioritize time and effort  

One of the main challenges with lowering PER is the metric itself. The federal government releases official numbers months after errors have occurred, and the lag time makes it challenging to see the real-time impact of efforts to improve. SNAP-administering agencies need methods for understanding what’s working in real time, so they can focus on efforts that move the needle. 

Measure the impact of new interventions 

As states design and implement new solutions to reduce their PER, make sure you can measure the impact of interventions separately, so that it’s clear if one solution is lowering the PER, having no real impact, or making the problem unexpectedly worse. Work with your vendor, IT partner, and/or quality assurance teams to make sure the right impact data is identified and captured so that impact can be reassessed frequently. 

Develop proxy metrics to understand progress and refine priorities

Write down what you’re changing and why. Choose a few reliable proxy metrics that indicate where case errors happen in the eligibility process. No one proxy metric will be perfect, but they can give quick feedback on whether changes are having their intended effect. Since your data won’t be perfect, focus on trying new things, making changes based on what you learn, and documenting everything. When new quality control data is released, compare it to your proxy metrics and update or eliminate any proxy metrics that aren’t tracking to real quality control results. 

Watch out for unintended consequences 

While lowering the PER is the primary goal, changes to reduce payment errors might create unintended consequences that negatively affect SNAP applicants and participants. When measuring the impact of changes, establish measures and proxy metrics to quickly detect potential secondary effects, including rising backlogs, drops in timeliness, or increased procedural denials. 

Review smarter, not harder 

While many states are introducing new requirements to review cases before benefits are issued in an effort to reduce PER, reviewing all cases for errors just isn’t feasible or sustainable. Leverage your own quality assurance data to identify the most error-prone case elements and actions, and target these issues both for worker training and reviews. Targeting a smaller subset of cases can help you balance the need to deliver benefits timely and accurately. And again, review the impact of your work—did these cases bear out with errors? Were the reviews worth your staff’s time? Are other error-prone case elements actually causing more problems? Adjust course and document your choices. 

2. Find high-leverage tweaks to make systems work better for caseworkers 

Making accurate SNAP determinations is difficult, and caseworkers have large caseloads. Too often, state systems make work harder for caseworkers, introducing errors through confusing workflows, fragmented file management systems, and clunky interfaces. Caseworkers’ tools should enable them to do their jobs well, especially in an environment where they are being asked to do more with less.

Leverage new technology to improve caseworker experience 

State agencies can reduce errors by combining worker-centered tools and improved, intentional processes. Pay attention to the workarounds frontline staff have already created. When eligibility workers develop their own spreadsheets or separate documents to templatize their workflows, they’re showing you exactly where the cracks in your official systems are letting them down. Technology should handle what technology does best: repetitive, error-prone tasks. In DC, for example, we built a browser extension that automatically flags inconsistent addresses, freeing staff to focus on complex casework while reducing data entry errors. Similarly, modern income-verification tools can free up caseworker time—but only when paired with strong oversight and clear protocols. 

Clean up data that workers use to process cases

Caseworkers often have to use multiple systems to process a case’s eligibility for benefits. A person receiving benefits might have more than one profile in an eligibility system, or one case’s documents may be tagged under different identifiers in a document database. Data inconsistencies across systems are all too common—and this means caseworkers end up spending extra time resolving duplicate profiles and documents, repeating another caseworker’s work, or sinking hours into cases that can’t be authorized. Entity resolution tools can link together these broken records and files automatically. By algorithmically determining when multiple entities (such as cases or individuals) are actually the same, entity resolution tools make eligibility determinations faster and more accurate. 

Ask application questions in plain language to get accurate information 

The initial SNAP application is the first opportunity for caseworkers to get accurate information they need to determine eligibility. However, if clients don’t understand what the application form is asking, giving the correct answer can be impossible. It’s critical that forms are easy to understand; include explanatory text to disambiguate tricky concepts like who must be included in their household and use the simplest questions to determine income: how many hours do you work, and what’s your hourly wage? It’s also critical to make sure your application is explicit about types of unearned income that must be included⁠.

3. Make it easier for SNAP clients to report a change 

When life changes quickly—a new job, a change in hours worked, or a family member moving in or out —reaching out to the SNAP office isn’t always top of mind. Make the right thing to do the easy thing to do, and clients are more likely to provide that updated information when it happens.

Help clients understand what actions they need to take, and when 

It’s very common for clients to share that they don’t know what type of change they need to report to the SNAP agency. States can address this confusion by creating accessible materials that break down reporting needs for different kinds of households—including what changes clients should not report. Proactive communication tools, like texting and email, can provide helpful reminders and be a powerful lever to ensure that the right people have the right information at the right time.   

Make sure there are multiple avenues for clients to report changes

If a client tries to report a change but encounters a three-hour wait on the phone, they may abandon their effort before they’ve had a chance to submit the change. Experiment with alternate avenues like live chat to give clients additional avenues to provide updated information, or get answers to common questions. Mobile-friendly and account-free options for document upload are also “win-wins” for workers and clients. Broad access to document upload after application submission enables applicants to comply with critical verification requests with no extra staff time.

Improve notices 

Paper notices are the most common way state agencies communicate to clients about their benefits, including providing instructions on when and how to report a change. Making your notices more readable and comprehensible will make it easier for clients to understand what they are supposed to do, and ultimately, more likely that they will take action on the instructions. 

Use a crisis to build resilience

This is an “all hands on deck” moment. By prioritizing core administrative fixes, states can build capacity for more nimble, responsive operations and be in a better position to manage future policy changes and unexpected crises—all while preserving access for people who rely on these benefits. It can be done, and we’re here to help.