Florida is on the hook to pay nearly $1 billion to keep SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, operating at its current enrollment level.
As mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the amount owed to the federal government is now tied to a state's "payment error rate," or unintentional overpayment and underpayment of benefits.
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Figures released on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, show Florida's 2025 error rate is 12.97%. The numbers reflect a timeframe from October 2024 to September 2025.
And while the error rate is down from 15% in 2024, it is still much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The new federal rules mandate that states with an error rate above 10% must pay 15% of the costs of benefits, or around $984 million. States are expected to pay as soon as October of 2027, although Florida could qualify for an exemption to push back that deadline another year.
Sky Beard, the director of the No Kid Hungry campaign in Florida, said that error rates used to act as a measure "to tweak processes and make things better" for state agencies administering food benefits.
"Never before have error rates been used to tie a state to a financial consequence as they do now," she said. "It has put state agencies in an incredibly difficult position."
It also marks the first time that states will be forced to contribute to the cost of benefits themselves.
Historically, the federal government paid for 100% of the grocery benefits while states covered a portion of the administrative costs, which are also increasing from 50% to 75% in October of this year.
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Beard said some likely factors contributing to Florida's SNAP error rate are: workers' unpredictable schedules, a large share of beneficiaries being older adults and the demand for disaster food assistance, or D-SNAP, that occurs after hurricanes.
"I think it's important to remember that the SNAP eligibility process is pretty complicated, and it's extensive, right?" Beard said. "So, there's a lot of circumstances where families might get confused or unsure of how to move forward with submitting documentation."
Earlier this year, lawmakers allocated $4 million for a "data analytics solution" to address SNAP error rates by procuring a vendor "capable of providing large-scale analyses of eligibility determinations using machine learning."
The Department of Children and Families, which administers SNAP benefits in Florida, did not respond to a request for comment about 2025 error rates and the agency's strategy going forward.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. Here's how you can share your story with her.
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