Due to the Trump administration’s crackdown on fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is also known as food stamps or welfare, states saw their numbers of enrolled shrink over the past year. According to Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, Arizona faced the steepest drop, with nearly 47% of recipients on the rolls since July 2025 losing benefits, about 424,000 fewer people.
The state that lost the next most recipients was Florida, with 16% removed since last July. The federal “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was enacted on July 4, 2025, expanded work requirements, reduced eligibility for non-citizens and increased the frequency of state eligibility verifications. It mandated that states reduce their payment error rates. Arizona’s was 8.8% in 2023-24, and projected to increase to 10.4%. The bill forces states to correct the error rates, or they will receive less funding for SNAP.
Some states have falsified their records in order to avoid penalties and get higher reimbursements from the federal government. The Congressional Research Service reported, “Beyond cases of fraud conducted by state agency employees for personal gain, in FY2017 the Department of Justice obtained False Claim Act settlements from three state agencies accused of falsifying their Quality Control data and unlawfully obtaining federal bonuses.”
Arizona’s SNAP program had an overpayment record of 7.56%, the USDA reported last July. Additionally, thousands of victims lost over $1.2 million in benefits due to benefit theft such as skimming or unauthorized EBT charges. One way the fraud takes place is welfare recipients sell their debit cards to others for cash, which is often spent on illegal drugs.
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