High Administrative Costs from Manual, Paper-Heavy SNAP Eligibility Processing

$100K+ monthly in excess admin spend per state, avoidable via 10-20% reduction[1][3] • Disjoint manual workflows across SNAP and Medicaid can increase admin cost per dual-program case by an estimated $40–$80, which, across tens of thousands of joint cases, can drive $2,000,000–$5,000,000/year in extra labor and error-driven rework. • Extended, labor-intensive appeals involving state match can tie up high-cost legal and program staff, and adverse findings tied to inaccurate, manual processing can threaten millions in federal reimbursement; even preventing a 0.5% loss on a $500,000,000 benefit program due to documentation and process errors would protect ~$2,500,000/year.

Analysts manually compile datasets from legacy eligibility systems, QC samples, and paper case reviews into spreadsheets to model how policy changes affect eligibility decisions, benefit levels, and retailer interactions. • Appeals staff manually assemble timelines by pulling PDFs, paper files, and system screenshots into case packets, then recalculating eligibility and benefits using spreadsheets or paper worksheets to understand where manual processing introduced errors. • Benefits issuance staff manually reconcile daily and weekly lists of approved cases, changes, and terminations by exporting from the eligibility system into spreadsheets and cross-checking against paper files and EBT batch reports to catch mismatches.