The Food & Nutrition Service (FNS) of the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program nationally, requires states to achieve a minimum accuracy rate of 94 percent when issuing benefits – or face penalties. This means that the percentage of total recipients who were either under or over paid, calculated as a Payment Error Rate, must be below 6% to be in compliance.

*Note: During the Public Health Emergency (PHE), a number of flexibilities were offered to state agencies by USDA FNS, including the suspension of QC reviews.  Therefore there were no official Program Error Rates established by FNS for FY2020 and FY2021.  PERs resumed being established by FNS as of FFY 2022.