Why Rhode Island can‘t afford to lose the race to reduce its SNAP error rate
Kimberly Merolla-Brito strode toward lawmakers clutching stacks of papers detailing the plan to overhaul the state’s food assistance program. But the director for the Department of Human Services barely glanced at the binder of materials during her hourlong presentation to the House Committee on Finance on March 25.
She didn’t need to.
Merolla-Brito has spent much of the last year immersed in the herculean task of improving accuracy in Rhode Island’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program has been perennially burdened by mistakes in the distribution of benefits, at its worst overpaying or underpaying more than 20% of the 140,000 low-income, senior, disabled and unhoused residents who rely on the monthly grocery benefits.
As of fiscal 2024, the most recent data available, the error rate was 12.3%, slightly above the 10.9% national average.
Reducing errors — a longstanding ambition of state administrators — is now an urgent priority across the country after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as H.R. 1, imposed significant financial penalties for states with error rates higher than 6%. Only five states reported error rates less than 6% in fiscal 2024.
States that fail to meet the new federal limit on errors by Oct. 1, 2027, based on the error rates from fiscal 2025 or 2026 benefits distribution, will be responsible for as much as 15% of the cost of the federal program, with the cost share determined by their error rate.
If accuracy problems persist, Rhode Island could pay up to $100 million a year for its food benefits program.
“We’re concerned,” Merolla-Brito said in an interview in the State House basement hallway after her remarks to lawmakers. “We’re really motivated with the progress. We’re making policy decisions. We saw a lot of processes that needed to be more consistent.”
Preliminary analysis by the department showed evidence of that progress — the error rate dropped to 7.6% in October, Merolla-Brito told lawmakers.
The early indicator comes as the agency begins to act on recommendations laid out in a state-commissioned report published in September. The list of recommendations to bring Rhode Island in line with federal mandates ranges from seemingly obvious fixes, like shortening and simplifying the 40-page application, to more difficult changes, like using artificial intelligence to manage workflow and reduce wait times in the agency call center.
Fraud unfounded
Republicans frame the nationwide problem of SNAP payment error rates as deliberate fraud, alleging that low-income families are taking advantage of the system. But evidence shows the most common source of program errors — over, and under — are caused by mistakes in entering application information, like household size or income, or because of changing circumstances, like a move to a different address. More frequent reviews, and updates to information, could head off these accidental inaccuracies, according to the report.
“I certainly don’t think it is about folks gaming the system,” said Courtney Smith, senior director of innovation and outreach for United Way of Rhode Island. “It’s about the application being available in ways that are culturally accessible and in language that people can understand.”
United Way is among dozens of community organizations that help answer questions and guide people through the application process, both through its 2-1-1 call center and in-person representatives at weekly food pantries and community events where people eligible for benefits might be.
Many of the situations that qualify residents for food assistance — lack of stable housing or private transportation, veteran status and age, disability, a large family size — also make it more difficult for them to comply with the administrative requirements.
“We see all the time here, people who need to request child care to go to DHS for an appointment,” said Heather Hole Strout, executive director for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport. “If you’re someone working in an hourly position and don’t have PTO, you sometimes miss those deadlines.”
Paperwork can be completed online, but also requires reliable internet access — an amenity missing for 12% of the state, according to a 2021 report.
Like other community advocates and providers, Strout worries that Rhode Island’s plan to reduce SNAP error rates, however well-intentioned and financially necessary, will reduce vulnerable residents’ access to critical food assistance, even if they are still eligible.
Which, to public policy groups like the Economic Progress Institute, is the point.
“These more frequent recertifications will absolutely cause more people to lose benefits due to churn,” said Nina Harrison, the institute’s policy director. “I think that’s by design on the federal government’s part. They don’t seem to be sincerely concerned with improving accuracy.”
The short timeline for states to meet new error rate limits alongside sweeping changes to SNAP eligibility is a recipe for more mistakes, not fewer, she added
“If they were truly concerned about reducing error rates, they would roll out these changes in slow and measured ways,” Harrison said.