Dead Recipients, Double Dippers: Trump’s SNAP Crackdown Uncovers Welfare Abuse

Paul Riverbank, 12/16/2025SNAP fraud crackdown reveals dead recipients, data battles, and the struggle to balance aid and oversight.

In the last year, officials at the USDA — the department steering SNAP — have grown vocal. "We know there are instances of fraud committed by our friends and neighbors, but also transnational crime rings," said Jennifer Tiller, one of the agency’s senior advisors. USDA has recently made a push for more data from the states—details like Social Security numbers and even immigration status—to bolster its hunt for cheats. This request, as dry as it seems, has kicked up a storm of legal and political wrangling.

So far, mostly Republican-led states, plus North Carolina, have handed over these files, triggering a rare display of compliance. Democrat-governed states, meanwhile, have slammed on the brakes, saying rules protecting privacy can’t just be brushed aside. The issue is now tangled in courtrooms. Despite the drama, the feds say their early sweep found over 186,000 dead people listed as recipients, along with almost half a million Americans drawing benefits from more than one state—a sizeable chunk when you add it up, but the true dollar figure of lost funds remains fuzzy. Not all this money, the agency admits, was even spent—some may just sit unused on people’s cards.

Ask two experts about the scale of SNAP’s fraud and you might get three opinions. The USDA’s letter to states painted a dire picture, estimating that simple errors and outright cheating could cost upwards of $9 billion each year. Not everyone buys these numbers. Democratic officials shot back, insisting that states already have safety nets in place and called on the USDA to reveal its math. They argue that suspicion alone shouldn’t drive nationwide crackdowns.

Fraud, for what it's worth, comes in flavors both brazen and subtle. Tech-savvy thieves have installed card skimmers in market checkout lines, siphoning off SNAP funds a few dollars at a time—often before anyone has a clue. Then there’s old-fashioned connivance: some store clerks have accepted bribes to ring up fake sales or wash illegal transactions, helping funnel millions through approved routes. One USDA insider was even caught running a side hustle, orchestrating a web of phony sales through delis around New York. Thirty million dollars wound through these machines—a number that raises eyebrows but also illustrates how rare large-scale busts can be.

The call for reform is urgent in some quarters. Mark Haskins, who spent years chasing down errant retailers for the USDA, says the program is “corrupt.” In his view, minor tweaks won’t cut it. He envisions a slimmer network of authorized stores and tighter re-application rules, knowing full well that even needy families might be ensnared by stricter oversight.

And yet, others—peering over thick reports—see something different. Late in 2021, a comprehensive USDA study calculated that 1.6% of SNAP payouts were stolen between 2015 and 2017. That’s hardly the tidal wave some describe, translating to about 24 cents lost for every $100 distributed. The latest figures show the government has stepped in to replace $323 million in victims’ lost benefits since late 2022. Patricia Anderson, an economist at Dartmouth, puts it bluntly: “It really takes organized crime that is either stealing from the EBT cards or creating a lot of fake recipients out of whole cloth before the gain for the fraudster really starts to be worth it.”

For folks relying on SNAP, the system’s quirks can be as punishing as fraud. Jamal Brown, from Camden, New Jersey, has seen both sides—people discreetly selling their cards for cash, and moments when his own benefits vanished courtesy of a card skimmer. He once missed a phone call from a program worker and lost his access outright, a reminder that red tape snares deserving people as often as it does cheats.

It’s clear that just about everyone agrees on the end goal: keep fraudsters at bay without shutting out those in real need. How to balance those two aims remains as unsettled as ever. For now, the country’s largest food aid program remains a battleground—not just for politicians and bureaucrats, but for the millions of Americans who count on it to put food on the table. The quest for a system that’s both fair and unfoolable remains, quite simply, unfinished.

If you wander into just about any grocery store in America, chances are someone nearby is buying milk or bread with help from the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as SNAP. The program is massive, quietly woven into life for 42 million Americans each month. Critics say it’s also a playground for scammers, prompting the Trump administration to trumpet an all-out war against fraud. Their rallying cry: anywhere from $9 billion to untold billions are being lost to gaming the system. But even insiders admit, nobody can say with certainty how deep the rot really goes.In the last year, officials at the USDA — the department steering SNAP — have grown vocal. "We know there are instances of fraud committed by our friends and neighbors, but also transnational crime rings," said Jennifer Tiller, one of the agency’s senior advisors. USDA has recently made a push for more data from the states—details like Social Security numbers and even immigration status—to bolster its hunt for cheats. This request, as dry as it seems, has kicked up a storm of legal and political wrangling.So far, mostly Republican-led states, plus North Carolina, have handed over these files, triggering a rare display of compliance. Democrat-governed states, meanwhile, have slammed on the brakes, saying rules protecting privacy can’t just be brushed aside. The issue is now tangled in courtrooms. Despite the drama, the feds say their early sweep found over 186,000 dead people listed as recipients, along with almost half a million Americans drawing benefits from more than one state—a sizeable chunk when you add it up, but the true dollar figure of lost funds remains fuzzy. Not all this money, the agency admits, was even spent—some may just sit unused on people’s cards.Ask two experts about the scale of SNAP’s fraud and you might get three opinions. The USDA’s letter to states painted a dire picture, estimating that simple errors and outright cheating could cost upwards of $9 billion each year. Not everyone buys these numbers. Democratic officials shot back, insisting that states already have safety nets in place and called on the USDA to reveal its math. They argue that suspicion alone shouldn’t drive nationwide crackdowns.Fraud, for what it's worth, comes in flavors both brazen and subtle. Tech-savvy thieves have installed card skimmers in market checkout lines, siphoning off SNAP funds a few dollars at a time—often before anyone has a clue. Then there’s old-fashioned connivance: some store clerks have accepted bribes to ring up fake sales or wash illegal transactions, helping funnel millions through approved routes. One USDA insider was even caught running a side hustle, orchestrating a web of phony sales through delis around New York. Thirty million dollars wound through these machines—a number that raises eyebrows but also illustrates how rare large-scale busts can be.The call for reform is urgent in some quarters. Mark Haskins, who spent years chasing down errant retailers for the USDA, says the program is “corrupt.” In his view, minor tweaks won’t cut it. He envisions a slimmer network of authorized stores and tighter re-application rules, knowing full well that even needy families might be ensnared by stricter oversight.And yet, others—peering over thick reports—see something different. Late in 2021, a comprehensive USDA study calculated that 1.6% of SNAP payouts were stolen between 2015 and 2017. That’s hardly the tidal wave some describe, translating to about 24 cents lost for every $100 distributed. The latest figures show the government has stepped in to replace $323 million in victims’ lost benefits since late 2022. Patricia Anderson, an economist at Dartmouth, puts it bluntly: “It really takes organized crime that is either stealing from the EBT cards or creating a lot of fake recipients out of whole cloth before the gain for the fraudster really starts to be worth it.”For folks relying on SNAP, the system’s quirks can be as punishing as fraud. Jamal Brown, from Camden, New Jersey, has seen both sides—people discreetly selling their cards for cash, and moments when his own benefits vanished courtesy of a card skimmer. He once missed a phone call from a program worker and lost his access outright, a reminder that red tape snares deserving people as often as it does cheats.It’s clear that just about everyone agrees on the end goal: keep fraudsters at bay without shutting out those in real need. How to balance those two aims remains as unsettled as ever. For now, the country’s largest food aid program remains a battleground—not just for politicians and bureaucrats, but for the millions of Americans who count on it to put food on the table. The quest for a system that’s both fair and unfoolable remains, quite simply, unfinished.