Florida’s SNAP Error Rate Dropped. It Did Not Drop Enough.
New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show Florida’s payment error rate for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fell to 12.97% in Fiscal Year 2025, down from 15.1% the year before. The improvement was not enough. Florida still exceeds both the national average and the threshold that will trigger a state cost-share payment of roughly $1 billion per year.
About 3 million Florida residents, 12.8% of the state’s population, received SNAP benefits last year, according to USA Facts.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Sets a Hard Threshold at 6%
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in 2025, cuts federal SNAP spending by $156 billion over a decade. To achieve those savings, Congress required states with payment error rates above 6% to begin sharing food costs starting in 2027. States with error rates at or above 10% must contribute 15% of food costs for their programs.
12.97%, Florida’s FY2025 SNAP error rate, compared to the 10.62% national average and the 6% federal threshold that triggers cost-sharing under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Florida’s 12.97% rate clears neither bar. At 10% or above, the state faces the steepest cost-share tier.
A $1 Billion Bill the Legislature Already Saw Coming
Florida lawmakers were warned earlier this year. During a legislative budget hearing, a top official at the state Department of Children and Families predicted the FY2025 rate would land around 13%. That prediction was nearly exact.
The Legislature responded by appropriating $4 million to the Department of Children and Families to help lower the error rate. Payment errors include both overpayments and underpayments. They reflect mistakes made by the state and by applicants.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins attributed the high rate to a lack of state accountability.
“These payment error rates are further proof that state accountability is severely lacking in SNAP.”
Brooke Rollins, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, June 2026
Florida must cut its error rate below 6% to escape cost-share obligations entirely. Getting from 12.97% to below 6% is a larger reduction than the state achieved in the entire prior fiscal year.
That $1 billion in state cost-sharing does not appear out of nowhere. It either comes from cuts to other state programs, new state appropriations, or reduced SNAP caseloads.
What You Can Do Now
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Call your Florida state legislators at the Florida Legislature switchboard (850-488-4371) and ask them to explain how they plan to fund the $1 billion SNAP cost-share without cutting caseloads or eligibility. The 2027 OBBBA cost-share deadline is less than two years away.
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Contact Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office at (850) 488-7146. Ask whether the administration plans to lower the error rate through administrative reform or by removing recipients from the rolls, and request a public timeline for either approach.
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Request a public SNAP error rate breakdown from DCF. The Florida Department of Children and Families publishes program data. Contact them at [email protected] and ask for a breakdown of overpayments vs. Underpayments by county, to understand whether errors are driven by state processing or by applicants.
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Share the USDA state error rate data directly. The full national dataset is at fns.usda.gov/snap/payment-error-rates. Your neighbors in other high-error states face the same cost-share risk.
Sources
Florida Phoenix: Florida SNAP Error Rate Lowered But Still Above Federal Threshold USDA Food and Nutrition Service: SNAP Payment Error Rates by State Congress.gov: One Big Beautiful Bill Act Text and Status USA Facts: Florida SNAP Enrollment Data Florida Phoenix: House Budget Panel Examines SNAP Changes and State Budget Impact