Kansas DCF says SNAP error rate is improving; agency appeals USDA data-request approach
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Summary
Deputy Secretary Tanya Keyes and Secretary Laura Howard told the committee the state is working to reduce SNAP payment-error rates below the federal 6% target, reported recent monthly reviews at 5.5%, and described a pending federal data-notice dispute with USDA that Kansas is appealing.
Deputy Secretary Tanya Keyes told the Public Health and Welfare committee that Kansas is working with federal partners to lower the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment-error rate so the state avoids possible federal penalties in federal fiscal year 2028.
Keyes said the state has been improving on the metric: DCF recorded a payment-error rate above 10% in one federal fiscal period and improved to about 9.58% the following year; cumulative FY25 year-to-date data were about 9.13%. She said the most recent month of case reviews yielded a 5.5% rate, which is below the 6% threshold the department must meet to avoid potential penalties. "The most recent month ... was 5.5, which is below 6%," Keyes said.
Secretary Laura Howard told the committee there are about 186,000 Kansans receiving SNAP and that approximately $427,000,000 in benefits flow annually through the state economy. Howard said the department is pursuing a mix of process and technology improvements and has requested modest funding to reduce human error and associated risk of federal penalty.
On a related federal issue, Howard said the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal-register notice describing expanded uses of SNAP data that DCF legal staff judged to exceed allowable purposes under federal law. She said roughly 20 states joined a lawsuit that is currently on hold while USDA revises the notice; Kansas did not join that lawsuit but has appealed the federal action and is awaiting the revised notice. Howard said no SNAP funding has been withheld from Kansas to date.
Why this matters: SNAP serves a large number of households and a sustained payment-error rate above federal thresholds could expose the state to substantial penalties. Howard and Keyes described improvement efforts and emphasized reliance on federal guidance and legal review in responding to the USDA notice.
Next steps: DCF will continue targeted operational changes and seek the revised USDA notice before determining any further action; the department intends to provide additional data to legislative committees on error-rate trends and the effect of planned technology investments.