05Vardr Benefits Gateway
National Overview
The Benefits Gateway puts decisioning and verification at the point where a caseworker actually decides — a full determination in 60 to 90 seconds instead of days, running in parallel, so a state can certify and re-certify at will rather than once a year.
- 9.82%
- Average error rate across 53 jurisdictions — 8.49 over, 1.33 under
- $849M
- Benefits mispaid for each point of error rate, a year
- 16 of 53
- Sit less than a point above a lower tier — $1.45B a year at stake
- ~9 months
- From fiscal year close to a state's rate being published
FY2028 cost-share exposure
What §10105 costs your state, and what a lower error rate is worth
Every one of the 53 reporting jurisdictions, on published USDA FNA data. 37.87M people enrolled, $84.92B in annualized benefits, and $8.32B in projected FY2028 state share across the 46 jurisdictions whose obligation is not deferred. Select a jurisdiction to see its position, or read the full ranking below.
Shading is the statutory tier, never the dollar amount — a map shaded by dollars is a population map, and would say only that California and Texas are large. The tier is what the statute keys on and what a state can move.
- 0% PER under 6%. No state share of benefit costs.
- 5% PER 6% to under 8%.
- 10% PER 8% to under 10%.
- 15% PER 10% or higher.
- Gray hatching first payment deferred to FY2029 — deferred, not waived; the 15% is still owed
- Error rate:
- FY2025 combined payment error rate, USDA FNA, published 2026-06-24
- Enrollment:
- Persons participating, February 2026 (initial), USDA FNA, data as of 2026-05-08
- Issuance:
- Monthly benefit issuance, April 2026 (initial), USDA FNA; annualized as month x 12
- Substitute months:
- Nevada uses March 2026 (preliminary); Arizona uses April 2025 (final).
Sources: SNAP Payment Error Rates · SNAP Data Tables · P.L. 119-21 §10105 (each opens in a new tab)USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) became the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) on June 1, 2026. Releases cited here are attributed to the agency under its current name; some predate the change.
All 53 jurisdictions, ranked by projected annual state share
The map shows where a jurisdiction sits; this shows where it ranks and how far it is from the next threshold. Bar length is the projected annual state share. Rows marked FY2029 are deferred, not waived.
| Jurisdiction | Enrolled | Benefits issued | PER | Tier | State shareProjected annual state share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5.16M | $11.92B | 10.93% | 15% | $1.79B |
| New York | 2.79M | $7.36B | 13.18% | 15% | $1.10B |
| Florida | 2.55M | $4.86B | 12.97% | 15% | $729.0M |
| Texas | 3.11M | $6.38B | 9.34% | 10% | $637.6M |
| Illinois | 1.69M | $3.81B | 14.67% | 15% | $571.1MFY2029 |
| Georgia | 1.29M | $3.01B | 15.21% | 15% | $450.8MFY2029 |
| Pennsylvania | 1.76M | $3.80B | 9.21% | 10% | $379.6M |
| Massachusetts | 954,453 | $2.14B | 12.49% | 15% | $321.4M |
| Arizona‡ | 448,976 | $1.94B | 10.80% | 15% | $290.6M |
| Michigan | 1.40M | $2.84B | 9.89% | 10% | $284.1M |
| Oregon | 717,017 | $1.53B | 14.14% | 15% | $229.2MFY2029 |
| Virginia | 695,447 | $1.48B | 12.32% | 15% | $222.7M |
| Maryland | 641,973 | $1.38B | 13.08% | 15% | $207.0M |
| Colorado | 583,013 | $1.36B | 10.09% | 15% | $204.0M |
| Oklahoma | 596,824 | $1.24B | 11.04% | 15% | $185.4M |
| Alabama | 690,555 | $1.52B | 9.52% | 10% | $152.0M |
| Ohio | 1.35M | $2.95B | 6.76% | 5% | $147.5M |
| Tennessee | 599,520 | $1.48B | 9.44% | 10% | $147.5M |
| Missouri | 618,825 | $1.46B | 8.67% | 10% | $146.0M |
| Louisiana | 681,120 | $1.42B | 8.14% | 10% | $142.4M |
| New Mexico | 442,803 | $934.4M | 16.81% | 15% | $140.2MFY2029 |
| North Carolina | 1.20M | $2.67B | 7.36% | 5% | $133.6M |
| Minnesota | 435,116 | $849.4M | 12.58% | 15% | $127.4M |
| Indiana | 530,190 | $1.20B | 9.77% | 10% | $120.1M |
| South Carolina | 509,596 | $1.10B | 8.80% | 10% | $110.1M |
| Washington | 871,156 | $1.94B | 6.98% | 5% | $96.8M |
| Hawaii | 158,822 | $617.8M | 10.92% | 15% | $92.7M |
| New Jersey | 778,176 | $1.84B | 6.86% | 5% | $91.8M |
| Connecticut | 326,708 | $704.7M | 9.08% | 10% | $70.5M |
| Mississippi | 322,162 | $674.4M | 9.51% | 10% | $67.4M |
| Maine | 153,160 | $325.9M | 10.81% | 15% | $48.9M |
| District of Columbia | 134,209 | $309.2M | 18.66% | 15% | $46.4MFY2029 |
| Arkansas | 225,116 | $461.8M | 8.81% | 10% | $46.2M |
| Rhode Island | 127,709 | $294.2M | 12.42% | 15% | $44.1M |
| Nevada‡ | 425,885 | $860.1M | 6.22% | 5% | $43.0M |
| Alaska | 66,344 | $263.0M | 23.15% | 15% | $39.4MFY2029 |
| Kansas | 170,894 | $353.2M | 9.44% | 10% | $35.3M |
| Guam | 39,916 | $231.2M | 11.70% | 15% | $34.7M |
| Delaware | 105,044 | $217.6M | 16.00% | 15% | $32.6MFY2029 |
| West Virginia | 255,410 | $518.6M | 6.69% | 5% | $25.9M |
| New Hampshire | 74,442 | $149.0M | 8.85% | 10% | $14.9M |
| Montana | 72,705 | $147.1M | 8.86% | 10% | $14.7M |
| North Dakota | 51,843 | $110.9M | 9.89% | 10% | $11.1M |
| Idaho | 124,433 | $265.3M | 3.85% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Iowa | 247,380 | $493.2M | 5.34% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Kentucky | 572,689 | $1.15B | 4.70% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Nebraska | 134,074 | $287.8M | 5.90% | 0% | $0.0M |
| South Dakota | 70,862 | $168.4M | 2.47% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Utah | 154,397 | $343.8M | 5.54% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Vermont | 61,039 | $138.0M | 5.38% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Virgin Islands | 19,505 | $61.5M | 5.36% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Wisconsin | 654,524 | $1.33B | 5.72% | 0% | $0.0M |
| Wyoming | 24,262 | $53.9M | 3.96% | 0% | $0.0M |
Enrollment and issuance columns appear on a wider screen; every figure for a single jurisdiction is on its one-pager. ‡ Issuance estimate uses a substitute month. Projected share = statutory tier × annualized benefit issuance. A projection of statutory mechanics, not a USDA determination or an invoice. The FY2028 tier is set by a jurisdiction’s FY2025 or FY2026 error rate at its election; FY2026 rates are not yet published.
What the Gateway changes
Adding caseworkers makes an existing team faster at the same determination. The tier only moves when the determination itself gets better — which means better information in front of the person deciding, and a way to find errors before a federal reviewer does.
- Determinations in 60 to 90 seconds, in parallelCertification and re-certification become something a state can run at will, not once a year — including confirming every enrollee against the SSN requirement in federal law.
- Real income data at the point of decisionBank-linked verification and transaction-level income analysis put actual earnings in front of the caseworker while the determination is open, instead of after a quality-control reviewer finds the gap.
- On-demand internal error-rate auditCounty-level and caseworker-level visibility whenever the agency wants it, rather than an eight-months-later federal finding. Errors get found and cases get fixed while that still changes the measured rate.
- Fraud and identity integrityCluster and ring detection, synthetic-identity flags, out-of-state moves, and deceased-recipient alerts. With our biometric card partnership, fingerprints are bound to the card — so the person using an EBT card is the person entitled to it and present at the time of use.
- Shadow mode before go-liveThe Gateway runs against the live system first and carries no real cases until it demonstrably matches or beats current performance. No state is asked to bet its current error rate on an unproven system while staff retrain.