Auditors look for big errors in Kansas SNAP program

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Kansas auditors are scrutinizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for signs of misuse and payment errors.

The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit (LPA) is pursuing an audit into the state's SNAP program this year to discover potential flaws and other errors. Three Republican representatives requested the audit following a House Government Oversight Committee in April this year with the investigation slated to be completed in early 2026.

How does SNAP work in Kansas?

SNAP is a program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) managed by the Kansas Department of Children and Families (DCF) in the Sunflower State that gives sustenance to low-income families to supplement their grocery budgets to help them afford nutritious food. People who are receiving aid from SNAP get monthly benefits on an electronic benefit card that can be used at stores, according to the PLA. The cards cannot be used to purchase non-food items like fast food or liquor.

Why is the KSLPA auditing the SNAP program?

The PLA is looking into allegations of payment errors, such as overpayments and underpayments, that surpass the federal government's standards and the degree of misuse of SNAP benefits in Kansas. Auditors are focusing on these topics in an effort to preserve the integrity and effectiveness of the program in Kansas.

Documents presented to the House Government Oversight Committee earlier this year from the Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD) show recent year's statistics for the payment error rate (PER) and the case and procedural error rate (CAPER) associated with the SNAP program in Kansas. The PER measures the accuracy of a state's eligibility and benefit determinations while CAPER records the number of times a state takes one or more inaccurate or procedurally incorrect actions when denying, terminating or suspending a household's SNAP benefits.

Kansas has a PER of 12.07% and a CAPER of 49.1% as of FY 2023, according to the KLRD. The 2023 PER rate exceeds the maximum 6% standard, according to the LPA.

What are the audit's big objectives?

The LPA reports that a high error rate can lead to federal penalties or corrective actions such as in FY 2022 when the federal government put the Sunflower State on a corrective action plan which it is still on in 2025. The current audit effort seeks to understand the reported errors and other potential issues with SNAP by pursuing two primary lines of questioning.

• Objective 1: What caused DCF's overpayment and underpayment rates for SNAP to exceed the federal government's standards in recent years?
• Objective 2: To what degree have SNAP benefits in Kansas been misused in recent years?

LPA auditors will work with DCF staff and the federal government to investigate this situation and review SNAP data. This includes identifying potential SNAP scams, like cash-for-card schemes and identity theft, reviewing the history of the SNAP program in Kansas and come up with a plan to prevent these issues in the future.

Political battleground

The Kansas SNAP program is the focus of an ongoing political battle between members of the state's Republican and Democratic parties. Attorney General Kris Kobach, House Speaker Dan Hawkins and other figures in the Republican-majority State Legislature are facing off against Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and DCF Secretary Laura Howard in a dispute over the program.

Kelly and Howard announced they would be resisting calls from the USDA to hand over SNAP information in late July, stating that to do so would place the personal information of thousands of people at risk. Howard said in August that state and federal law require the DCF to protect personal identifiable SNAP data and that gathering the requested information could take months to collect.

Republicans like Hawkins have accused Kelly of participating in a cover-up with the SNAP program by withholding data from the USDA and argue that Kansas stands to lose more than $10 million in federal funding. Kobach also announced he is suing Kelly and Howard on Sept. 8 for their refusal to turn over the information

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