Massachusetts residents are looking down the barrel of $300 million in federal penalties, equivalent to an additional $90 per taxpayer annually, if the payment error rate in the state’s SNAP program fails to improve significantly from current levels, a new study released by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation says.
The study, entitled SNAP in Massachusetts: How the food stamp program is failing Bay State taxpayers, found that several policies at the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), paired with decisions made by the Healey administration, have exacerbated the problem.
“Massachusetts taxpayers are about to be penalized because of Massachusetts state government’s failure to properly administer the SNAP program” said Fiscal Alliance Foundation Executive Director Paul Craney. “When state government fails to prioritize welfare spending; waste, errors, and fraud become more common.”
According to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on June 24, Massachusetts’ SNAP payment error rate is an astonishingly high 12.49% for FY25 — above the national average of 10.62% and equal to nearly $300 million in erred payments. Over the last four fiscal years — Healey’s first term in office – that figure jumps to a whopping $1.4 billion.
Massachusetts cost-sharing liability
The state’s high payment error rate is slightly down from the 14.10% rate reported by the USDA in FY24, improving by just 1.61% to 12.49% in FY25. Despite that improvement, Massachusetts still remains above the national average and still sits significantly above the threshold of 6% set by the federal government.
New federal policy, under the 2025 reconciliation law, requires states with payment error rates above the national average to cover 15% of its SNAP benefit costs, currently totaling $298.9 million for Massachusetts.
“Massachusetts’s error rate is high enough to trigger this 15 percent cost sharing requirement, starting in FY2028. Massachusetts could reduce its error rate in FY2026 and thus lower its cost sharing liability, but recent trends indicate that this is highly unlikely to occur,” the Fiscal Alliance study says. “At 12.49 percent, more than $1 in every $10 dollars spent on SNAP in Massachusetts is considered improper.”
Massachusetts received over $2.6 billion, or more than $240 million per month, in federal SNAP funding in FY24, equating to $364 million in erred payments that year, of which, $338 million was in overpayments.
The new cost-sharing liability rule is expected to take effect in FY28, which starts in October 2027.
High enrollment a leading cause of payment error rate
The study also found that Massachusetts not only remains an outlier when it comes to payment errors, but also posts both the highest SNAP enrollment and expenditures per capita along with the highest SNAP payment error rate in all of New England.
SNAP enrollment in Massachusetts has increased by an astounding 40% over the past decade — representing a jump from 785,000 recipients in FY16 to over 1 million recipients in FY25 — resulting in DTA expenditures increasing by 120% in that same timeframe. In 2026, there at 1.1 million SNAP recipients in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts currently outranks all of New England in per capita enrollment, with 15,205 recipients per 100,000 residents – well above the New England average of 12,386 per 100,000.
Healey administration’s role and current DTA policies
Current policies and practices in place at the DTA combined with the Healey administration’s response to the SNAP crisis are defining factors in the state’s soaring payment error rate, the study says.
It says “poor policy decisions” by the Healey administration directly contribute to payment errors, including geographic waivers that resulted in nearly 40% of the state’s caseload not being subject to commonsense work requirements, over 120,000 unique “discretionary exemptions” in FY25 to further waive work requirements for recipients, and Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility – which waives SNAP asset limits altogether and raises the state’s gross income limit from 130% of the federal poverty level to 200%.
It also pointed to simplified reporting standards in the DTA — meant to reduce the paperwork burden on recipients, but what the study says is at the cost of inaccurate reporting. It also highlights the state’s lengthy recertification periods as a contributing factor — which can range from one to three years. Most states give recipients benefits for periods as short as three to four months until they are required to re-certify.
“The fact that Massachusetts’ minimum is a year and its maximum is three years is incredibly concerning,” said study author Hayden Dublois.
The study knocks the Healey administration for primarily resorting to denying the severity of payment error and fraud issues within the SNAP program, shifting blame to the federal government, and hiring more staff to manage a broken system.
The Healey administration last week launched the use of chip-enabled EBT cards — something expected to combat fraud via stolen recipient information from skimmers used at point of sale (POS) terminals on EBT cards currently issued by the state.
Healey has blamed the federal government, particularly President Trump, even after the Biden administration urged her to clean up the state’s SNAP program in a 2024 letter.
This as Healey still refuses to hand over SNAP recipient information, including immigration status, to the Trump administration and the USDA in order to root out waste, fraud and abuse. Healey’s office says the Trump administration has not provided assurances the information will not be given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Herald has requested comment from Healey and the DTA.
