SNAP Performance Metrics Dashboard

The payment error rate (PER) measures the accuracy of Iowa HHS’s eligibility and benefit determinations for SNAP. Payment errors include both underpayments and overpayments. Payment errors are the result of inadvertent errors made on the part of a SNAP recipient or state agency. The payment error rate does not represent program fraud.

The payment error rate does not differentiate between the sources of each type of error, but does provide an estimate of both over and underpayments of benefits. In FY 2024, the PER accounts for errors above a $57 threshold.

If a household has been found to have received an overpayment of benefits, even if the source of the error was a state agency, agencies are required to work toward recovering excess benefits from households. Households who are found to have received an underpayment in benefits may be able to recoup them through a process to restore lost benefits with Iowa HHS.

In 2019, the state of Iowa was issued a $1.8 million fine from USDA for having a payment error rate of 10.0% – which was 3.2% higher than the national average in FY 2018 (6.8%).

Iowa chose to designate 50% of the liability amount toward new investments in approved activities to improve SNAP administration through its Business Process Redesign and designated the remaining 50% of the liability amount as at risk for repayment if an excessive payment error rate occurred in FY 2019. This did occur, and the state paid the liability, when the payment error rate for Iowa in FY 2019 increased to 12.5%—5.1% higher than the national average in FY 2019 (7.4%).

More recently, however, Iowa has shown improvements in reducing its payment error rate. While USDA does not have official payment error rate data for FY 2020 and FY 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2022 legislative presentation by HHS³, the payment error rate for SNAP in Iowa fell to 9.4% in FY 2020 and 6.6% in FY 2021.

And in FY 2024, the latest year for which we have official USDA data, Iowa’s payment error rate for SNAP was 6.14%—well below the national average of 10.93%.

The SNAP Application Processing Timeliness (APT) rate measures the timeliness of states’ processing of initial SNAP applications. The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 entitles all eligible households to SNAP benefits within 30 days of application, or within 7 days, if they are eligible for expedited service.

The Application Processing Timeliness rate measures the percentage of applicants who received their benefits within the time period required by federal law. USDA FNS considers APT rates under 95% to be untimely, and classifies APT rates falling below 90% as very untimely.

In addition to Application Processing Timeliness, states also monitor Recertification Processing Timeliness (RPT) and report the data to USDA FNS. Most Iowans on SNAP have to recertify for benefits every six months. Elderly and disabled individuals need to recertify every 12 months. From the latest available USDA data (January-June 2024), Iowa’s RPT rate was 79.1%.

Iowa has been under a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) with USDA FNS since 2023 in regards to its low SNAP Application Processing Timeliness (APT) rate. A root cause analysis conducted by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services identified major root cause concerns, including the fact that “eligibility staff lack overall knowledge of timeliness policy.”

While the latest annual QC data available from USDA is for FY2023 (and highlighted in this report), more recent data from USDA FNS for the period of January-June 2024 show Iowa’s APT rate slipped further to an abysmal 63.0% (ranking 44th of all states). It is entirely possible that Iowa’s APT rate for FY 2024 will be even lower than it was in FY 2023.

On the positive side, it does appear that work at Iowa HHS to increase Application Processing Timeliness is starting to show some improvements. The department has moved to a dedicated SNAP team, improved staff processes and training, and its SNAP Leadership Council has expanded its focus beyond addressing payment error rates to also address timeliness and other performance metrics.

While Iowa is showing some positive developments in improving its Application Processing Timeliness rate, far too many Iowans are still waiting for SNAP benefits for a time period longer than what is required by federal law.

In FY 2022, USDA FNS released additional data that provides more specific state-level information related to the four measurements included in the case and procedural error rate. While we do not have updated Iowa-specific data since then, this helps identify areas that have been problematic in the past.

For instance, in FY 2022, in 11% of cases where a denial was made, the record reason for making the denial was found to be inaccurate. This means that 1 in 10 SNAP cases that were denied should not have been.