Late last week, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) released its first quarterly report on county-specific Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment error rates. The report, based only on March 2026 data, shows calculated SNAP payment error rates for each individual county.
You can view the report and your county’s error rate here.
County JFS directors and teams have access to the full data dashboard that includes more specifics regarding the cases reviewed and the payment errors found. CCAO encourages members to discuss your county’s SNAP payment error rate with your JFS director if you have questions.
Additional background information on this new SNAP payment error rate process is available below.
ODJFS will host a webinar to provide an overview of this report for CCAO members and county JFS directors on Monday, July 13 at 2:00 p.m. During the webinar, ODJFS staff will explain the new county-specific SNAP payment error rate calculation process and answer questions.
To join the webinar, use the link below:
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/29651050648071?p=ekGLXLTqH4WD25qn09
Meeting ID: 296 510 506 480 71
Passcode: VF335Ng3
Dial in by phone
Phone conference ID: 996 135 037#
Join on a video conferencing device
Tenant key: 682042763@t.plcm.vc
Video ID: 115 417 576 3
In July 2025, the federal government passed sweeping changes to SNAP through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. States will now be required to pay a portion of SNAP benefit costs based on the state’s payment error rate. An error rate is a measure of underpayments and overpayments to a SNAP recipient.
If a state’s error rate is below 6%, the state will not pay any benefit costs. Rates greater than 6% will require the state to cover 5%, 10%, or 15% of the benefit amount depending on how high the error rate is.
Ohio’s error rate is calculated by randomly pulling 1,020 cases throughout the year. The ODJFS quality control team reworks each case and determines the over/underpayment error amounts and the cause of the errors. The findings are reported to USDA FNA. Following each federal fiscal year, FNS releases state payment error rates. Ohio’s payment error rate for FFY 2025 is 6.76%.
Because the sample size is 1,020 annually, ODJFS is unable to determine county specific payment error rates from the federal process. Many counties do not even have one case selected.
Last fall, the General Assembly examined Ohio’s payment error rate process given the new state responsibility for benefit costs. The lawmakers determined the state should know county specific payment error rates. House Bill 434 (Representatives Bernie Willis and Brian Lampton), effective November 25, 2025, required ODJFS to develop a methodology and technical system to determine SNAP payment error rates at the county level.
Under the ODJFS system, ODJFS assigns each county 15, 20, or 25 cases to review depending on county size. The county completes the case reviews using a tool provided by ODJFS.
HB 434 requires ODJFS to submit a quarterly report using this data to the House and Senate Finance Committee chairs that includes: each distinct SNAP payment error rate calculated using the system; SNAP payment error rates for each county; and the statewide SNAP payment error rate.
The first report was due to the legislature by June 30, 2026.
While the ODJFS process mirrors the FNS process for determining Ohio’s official SNAP payment error rate, it is important to note that the cases used in each process are different. This could yield different results between the two processes over time.
ODJFS included the following note in its report:
Note: Due to capacity and county staff limitations, the required number of case reviews for this exercise does not generally produce a statistically significant error rate per county. Under this methodology, the margins of error based on the number of sampled cases will go as high as 7% over the course of one year. The data provided is based on one month of reviews for March 2026 benefits. Future reports will contain 3 months’ worth of data. These are preliminary rates as a few may change based on a few weeks remaining in the state review process (ends July 31st).
Members with questions should contact Rachel Reedy at rreedy@ccao.org.