As America’s welfare state has ballooned to more than 80 major federal programs, they’ve become a target-rich environment for alleged scam artists like those in Minneapolis. It had the fourth highest rate of documented fraud across all federal programs from 2018 to 2022, coming in at $10.5 billion. Massachusetts had a 14 percent error rate on SNAP payments in fiscal year 2024 — the seventh highest in the country. Across every state, overpayments represented a larger share of the error rate than underpayments. By offering a fixed amount of funding, Washington could encourage states to spend more carefully and vet recipients more thoroughly.

Source: Washington Post December 31, 2025 22:10 UTC