Illinois SNAP error rate rises; Pritzker blames Trump

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois now has the fifth-highest error rate in the nation for improper payments to recipients of federal food subsidies, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker is blaming the Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on Wednesday that the nation’s states and territories made a collective $10 billion in improper Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments during fiscal year 2025.

Illinois’ error rate of 14.67% is up from 11.56% last year and ranks fifth highest among states.

Starting Oct. 1, states with average error rates more than 6% will pay more for administrative costs, potentially costing Illinois taxpayers more than $800 million a year.

A reporter asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker about the increase at an event in Chicago on Thursday.

“It’s all with the goal by the federal government to basically push people off of SNAP,” the governor said.

Pritzker said the Illinois Department of Human Services and other state officials have been working to improve the error rate.

Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said the governor promised to improve the rate before he gave his budget address in February.

“You’re not serving the most vulnerable people who need it, and that’s really what’s more concerning for me is the amount of money that will be lost to the people that actually need it because they’re not willing to do their job,” McCombie told The Center Square.

McCombie said Pritzker blames congressional Republicans and President Trump all the time.

“This is his to own and we’re gonna have very vulnerable people lose benefits because he refuses to fix one of the highest rates in the nation,” McCombie said.

The Savanna Republican said there isn’t room in the budget for another billion dollars of food assistance.

“They need to right away get into that agency, figure out who is on the roll right now. Who’s getting it? Who should be getting it? Who’s getting too much, who’s getting too little and fix that error rate,” McCombie said.

Greg Bishop and Thérèse Boudreaux contributed to this story.