The People's Think Tank: SNAP Fraud Is Rare
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Racist disinformation about fraud within U.S. government funded food assistance programs has persisted for decades. Across USDA, Congressional Research Service, and Government Accountability Office data, the core number never moves much: about 1–2% of benefits get trafficked; most of the rest of the “bad” dollars are plain administrative or recipient mistakes, often caused by states.
TL;DR
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The Very Short History of Food Stamp Fraud in America Time, March 30, 2017
“...the real history of food-stamp fraud reveals that…that concern is misplaced today…the fraud rate has decreased from ‘about 4 cents on the dollar in 1993 to about 1 cent’ by 2006. And this decline has only continued, with the 3.5% rate of fraud in 2012 reducing to less than 1.5% today.”
No, SNAP Benefits Aren’t Mostly Used by Immigrants Wired, October 30, 2025
“A number of conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers are claiming that immigrants are the main recipients of food stamps, while AI-generated videos on TikTok push racist stereotypes of Black people demanding more benefits.”
Who gets food stamps? Viral chart misleads about SNAP recipients’ race, ethnicity Politifact, October 27, 2025
“According to the most recent USDA data available, from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4%. African Americans are next, making up 25.7% of recipients, then Hispanic people at 15.6%, Asian people at 3.9%, Native Americans at 1.3% and multiracial people at 1%. The race of 17% of participants is unknown.
The same report found that 89.4% of SNAP recipients were U.S born citizens, meaning less than 11% of SNAP participants were foreign-born. Of the latter figure, 6.2% were naturalized citizens, 1.1% were refugees and 3.3% were other noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens.”
[BRIAN’S NOTE: The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated eligibility for noncitizens like undocumented people with a disability or those who are under the age of 18.]
Fact Check | Are Black people the majority of welfare recipients? Revolt, February 28, 2024
“The stereotype linking Black individuals to welfare has clear historical roots…The welfare queen stereotype has significant consequences for public policy and the way society views those in need of government assistance…By fostering negative perceptions of Black welfare recipients, the stereotype promotes the belief that the majority of Black people are on welfare or receive social assistance. These misconceptions routinely impact welfare reform, and hinders the development of compassionate and effective social policies aimed at addressing poverty and inequality.”
SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more The Handbasket, November 1, 2025
President Ronald Reagan infamously castigated “welfare queens,” followed by President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Joe Biden bemoaning the “culture of dependency” supposedly wrought by government assistance…Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, took racist delight in branding President Obama as “the food stamps president.” And on Thursday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) suggested that Americans who couldn’t go one month without a SNAP allotment should “stop smoking crack.”
According to the Government Accountability Office, 70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, largely in the vaunted private sector. Notably, that includes workers at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s, whose low wages are effectively been subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures. As The Daily Yonder notes, SNAP recipients are also disproportionately made up of rural households (13.7% SNAP enrollment) compared to households in metro areas (11.4%), which runs against popular perceptions and tropes about need…
But beyond the particulars of who the program specifically benefits, what the conversation about SNAP also tends to miss is how it benefits everyone. SNAP users, for example, are often able to supplement cheap, processed foods with more nutrient-dense foods like lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains and dairy. People even use SNAP benefits to buy seeds to grow their own food.* What’s more, before we slashed research on critical public health issues, studies found that SNAP helped people with chronic health conditions like diabetes better maintain their medically-advised nutritional regimens. This is one small example of how programs allow Americans to lead healthier lives, get better jobs and remain more socially mobile, and save all of us (taxpayers included) from billions in expensive and unnecessary medical spending.
SNAP Includes Extensive Payment Accuracy System Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, June 21, 2024
“SNAP’s error rates compare favorably to many other government activities. For example, the tax gap ― or the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid ― is around 15 percent in tax year 2021 (the most recently studied year), according to Internal Revenue Service projections. For some categories of income, the share that is misreported is particularly high: 55 percent of non-farm proprietor income, a subset of business income reported on individual returns (the largest source of the tax gap), is misreported.[4]”
Pete Gallego says 97 percent of food stamp benefits reach eligible Americans in appropriate amounts Politifact, June 25, 2013
“In March 2013, PolitiFact in Washington rated Pants on Fire the declaration that 70 percent of the program’s funding went to its employees. The broadest calculation of SNAP administrative costs topped out at 5 percent of its costs…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Errors and Fraud Congressional Research Service, April 7, 2025
“Errors are not the same as fraud. Fraud is intentional activity that breaks federal and/or state laws, while errors are mistakes. Certain acts, such as trafficking, are always considered fraud, but other acts, such as duplicate enrollment, may be either errors or fraud depending on the circumstances of the case. SNAP fraud is rare, according to available data and reports...”
LISTEN
Code Switch, NPR, November 8, 2025 (35 minute listen) The hidden history of demonizing SNAP recipients
WATCH
NowThis Impact’s Instagram
“Children who receive SNAP benefits are more likely to earn more as adults. It’s that simple.”
Dr. Jessica Knurick’s TikTok
“Fraud rates in these essential public health programs are routinely under 2%, and most of it comes from providers, not individuals.”
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NowThis Impact’s Instagram
“The right is pushing a racist lie about who uses SNAP to justify ending a program that 42 million Americans rely on. Instead of blaming our neighbors, we should be looking up.”
Last Week Tonight U.S. Government Shutdown and SNAP
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
Instagram post by Food Bank for Larimer County
Instagram post by Caroline Waltzman
MEME
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