Kansas and Missouri have made progress in lowering their food assistance program payment error rates, but still may have to pay millions for the program next year due to changes made in the One Big Beautiful bill. Under the current plan, Kansas would have to pay around $40 million, and Missouri’s share would be $151 million.

Impact on SNAP Benefits

Elizabeth Keever, chief resource officer with Harvesters, a regional food bank, said this cost shift puts SNAP benefits at risk. “There is a reality that if states can’t pay and they simply don’t have it in their budgets, the SNAP program in states will cease to exist,” Keever said. “And frankly, that’s terrifying.”

The error rate is a measure of accuracy for SNAP food benefit payments. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these payment errors are largely unintentional underpayments or overpayments. The error rate is not considered a metric for measuring fraud.

State Efforts to Reduce Error Rates

Kansas had a payment error rate of 9.4%, a slight decrease from 9.9% in 2024. Missouri’s error rate is 8.7%, down from 9.42% in 2024. Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said states are erecting access barriers to SNAP because they’re concerned about the coming large payments.

These barriers include asking for more verification and asking people to renew certification more often, which can also reduce the program’s numbers as people get frustrated with the process and leave. Keever said the error rates have been affected by other factors aside from payment errors, including the government shutdown last year and changes to eligibility for certain individuals.

Hunger relief agencies like Harvesters are urging lawmakers to delay the changes to SNAP until states can adjust. Letters signed by a bipartisan group of 210 mayors and the National Governors Association are both asking Congress to delay the changes.

Original reporting: Johnson County Post (Overland Park) — read the source article.