Federal food stamp program management is so lax that 84% of recipients who are supposed to be working at least 20 hours a week in order to maintain their eligibility do not do so, and they are rarely held accountable, the House Budget Committee was told Wednesday.

“In the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, Congress declared that a purpose of food stamps was ‘to assist low-income adults in obtaining employment and increasing their earnings.’ However, the work-promotion policies in the food stamp program are in desperate need of improvement,” Economic Policy Innovation Center Budget Policy Director Matthew Dickerson testified.

“Few food stamp recipients work, and those who do work do not work very much. In 2022, 84 percent of those who are supposed to be subject to the work requirement did not work the 20 hours per week needed to satisfy the work requirement through employment,” he continued.

There are work requirements on the books for Food Stamp recipients, but they are rarely enforced, Dickerson told the committee. The official name of the federal food stamp program is the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).

“Because of loopholes and exceptions, the current food stamp work requirements apply to only a fraction of the able-bodied welfare recipients. While 13 million able-bodied adults received benefits in 2022, fewer than 3.6 million Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) were supposed to be subject to modest work requirements. But many of these ABAWDs could receive welfare benefits without working due to geographic waivers or no-good-cause exemptions,” Dickerson explained.

Congress should not be hesitant about demanding SNAP program managers vigorously enforce work requirements because doing so helps the recipient move their lives in positive directions, while also contributing positively to the surrounding community, Dickerson argued.

“Work is an essential American value. It is a positive good for individuals, families, communities, and our nation. It can instill ethics of integrity, honesty, respect, empathy, and accountability. Work requires effort that is essential to earned success,” Dickerson testified.

“It increases and amplifies people’s engagement with their communities, strengthening local bonds and trust. Collaborative work provides an avenue for innovation to solve problems, encouraging growth and development to improve quality of life for all. As it benefits the larger society, work gives individuals a sense of purpose, allowing them to utilize their unique gifts and talents and achieve their full potential,” he said.

In addition to lax enforcement of work requirements, which enable able-bodied recipients to remain dependent upon the government for years, Dickerson said the SNAP program has suffered a marked increase in improper payments in the past two years.

The total annual loss to improper payments is estimated to reach $56 billion, Dickerson said, and he pointed to the fact 11.5% of all food stamp payments went to ineligible recipients in 2023 and 11.7% in 2024. As recently as 2013, the percentage of improper payments was 3.3%, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The actual total cost of improper SNAP payments is definitely higher than the official data shows, Dickerson said.

“Virtually all food stamp improper payments are overpayments. In fiscal year 2023, 10% of food stamp payments were overpayments, while just 1.6% were underpayments. Improper payments are likely significantly higher than the reported amounts. In fact, the 2014 Farm Bill instructed USDA to ignore improper payments up to a ‘quality control tolerance threshold.’ This threshold was set at $37 in 2014 and increases with inflation each year. In 2023, the ‘tolerance threshold’ was $54. Thus, any improper payment up to $54 was intentionally not reported,” Dickerson said.

The House committee also heard testimony from Professor Robert Gordon of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, who, in critiquing the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), strongly disagreed with Dickerson’s characterization of work requirements as providing positive benefits to individuals, communities, and the nation.

“The [BBB] proposal is premised on two myths. The first is that millions of able-bodied Medicaid and SNAP recipients are doing nothing. As I noted, among working-age adults on Medicaid who are not getting disability payments, about two-thirds are working. Many will lose their health care because they can’t get enough hours at certain times — maybe they work in a hotel that closes for the winter, or in a school-based child care that closes for the summer. And more than 90% are either working, engaged in caregiving, sick or disabled, or in school,” Gordon testified.

“Similarly, among households with children that reported receiving SNAP in 2023 and include a non-disabled working-age adult, more than 90% had earnings during the year. The second myth is that work requirements get people into jobs. Multiple studies find work requirements had no effect on employment in Arkansas and ‘no effect on employment.’ in the SNAP program either. People cite the precedent of welfare reform in the 1990s, this bill touches health care and food, not cash, and it offers nothing to help people work. There is nothing here for child care, training, or transportation. They all face cuts instead,” Gordon warned.