11/7/2025|Updated: 11/7/2025
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has raised significant fraud concerns, according to the Department of Agriculture, which administers the program.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins
called the food stamps program “broken and corrupt.”
This assessment came more than a month into the government shutdown that threatened to cut off SNAP benefits entirely.
Rollins noted “massive fraud” uncovered by her agency and said she believes benefits should be reevaluated.
Here’s what we know about fraud in the SNAP program.
How SNAP Is Supposed to Work
Established in 1939, the SNAP program, also known as food stamps, is a federal nutrition assistance program that supplements the grocery budgets of low-income Americans.
It is administered at the federal level by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and at the local level by state agencies that interface with applicants.
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SNAP is the largest federal nutrition program in the United States, which served around 41.7 million people and cost the government nearly $100 billion in 2024.
More than 261,000 stores participate in the program, which allows eligible individuals to purchase certain foods with an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.
The amount of funds added to the card depends on the household’s financial situation and the number of dependents.
According to the USDA, in 2024, the average benefit per person was approximately $187 per month, and just over 12 percent of Americans received SNAP benefits.
Unlike other nutrition programs, such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) or child-targeted nutrition programs, SNAP is not limited to a specific group.
As of 2023, adults aged 18 to 59 accounted for nearly 42 percent of participants, while children aged 17 and under accounted for about 39 percent. Adults aged 60 and above accounted for 19.5 percent of the program.
Growing Fraud Concerns
Rollins said in a Nov. 2
post on X that 21 states refused to send data for review to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The request was sent to all 50 states shortly after the Trump administration took over in January of this year, she said, and within the 29 states that cooperated, “massive fraud” was found in the form of thousands of cases of illegal immigrants and deceased individuals receiving benefits.
As a result of that audit alone, approximately 700,000 individuals have been removed from SNAP benefits, and more than 100 arrests have been made in connection with fraudulent SNAP benefits.
Over payment rates climbed from 2 percent in 2012 to more than 10 percent in 2023, according to research from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. That disparity alone costs taxpayers around $10 billion annually.
“The levels of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs have never been higher. Although these types of avoidable inefficiencies have always been too high, they have recently surged with the unusual degree of federal spending brought on by the global pandemic,” the
report reads.
Similarly, in June 2024, the USDA reported that an estimated 11.7 percent, or around $10.5 billion, of SNAP benefits paid out in 2023 were improper payments, and this number is trending upward.
What to Know About Rising SNAP Fraud Claims
