HR1 introduced several major structural changes to the SNAP program in July of 2025. Critically, it shifted significant costs from the federal government to states. Beginning in October 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates (PERs) above 6 percent will be required to cover up to 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs. With the national average PER at 10.62 percent in FY2025, states that do not substantially reduce errors could face potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in unplanned costs.
MEF Associates, with funding from Arnold Ventures, worked with state partners to identify and design cost-effective strategies to reduce SNAP payment errors. In this initial phase of work, participating states received a tailored assessment of program strengths and opportunities, expert feedback on potential intervention concepts from behavioral nudges and staff training support to quality assurance prioritization tools, and support in developing rigorous evaluations to test intervention effectiveness.
Future work may support states in implementing and evaluating these intervention concepts. The strategies developed through this project are designed to be applicable beyond SNAP, with direct relevance to other programs that rely on change reporting.