Iowa and Wisconsin Stolen Snap Claims Very Low; Illinois Over 7K

Food stamps, SNAP Benefits, EBT: whatever you would like to call them they have been, and continue to be, a high point of discussion in politics. Whether it's the loss of benefits due to the government shutdown, or the massive increase of benefits that occurred during Covid, SNAP is rarely something that everyone agrees on.

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Did you know that in 2024, 41.7 million people were served SNAP benefits on average across the United States?! Well, since the government has officially reopened, benefits have once again been reinstated to those millions of Americans, but the latest findings of the USDA show fraudulent use continues to be an issue worth tackling for tax paying Americans. Here in the Midwest the story looks a lot more promising when it comes to fraud allegations.

Let’s start with Iowa. In 2024, the state redeemed just over $509 million in SNAP benefits. When the USDA dug into stolen-benefit claims, those where someone’s EBT card is skimmed, cloned, or otherwise taken, Iowa logged only 82 for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. For a program that big it's surprisingly low.

Head north to Wisconsin, which redeemed more than $1.2 billion in benefits last year. Now you’d think that with a program twice the size of Iowa’s, fraud would be higher. Instead, Wisconsin clocked in at just 10 stolen-benefit claims. That’s practically unheard of. Whatever security measures they’re using, they seem to be working in this regard. There is also the caveat that cases are just not being reported as well.

Then there’s Illinois. With more than $4 billion in SNAP benefits redeemed in 2024, Illinois is one of the biggest SNAP states in the nation. But the fraud numbers tell a fraudulent story: 7,244 stolen-benefit claims in just the first quarter. That’s not a typo. Over seven thousand cases of people having their benefits "stolen" before they could even buy groceries. I say "stolen" because part of the fraud is that these benefits are being sold by program participants for cash.

When you compare the three states side by side, the difference is staggering. Iowa and Wisconsin look like success stories. Illinois looks like a system under serious strain, with criminals clearly finding ways to exploit the system.

It's an even more dire picture when we look across the United States. Here are the top 5 in SNAP fraud Claims:

• Alabama: 26,118 claims
• California: 25,818 claims
• Pennsylvania: 25,210 claims
• Oklahoma: 20,742 claims
• Ohio: 15,957 claims

Remember, this is just for the first quarter of 2025's fiscal year.

SNAP is supposed to help families buy real food, not fuel a black market of stolen cards and skimmed or sold benefits. Now, while fraud is only a small slice of the total program, it’s still taxpayer money and real harm done to families that actually rely on those dollars to eat.

As the USDA continues its crackdown and more states tighten up their systems, the Midwest could become a real test case. Iowa and Wisconsin show what’s possible when fraud is kept in check. Illinois shows what happens when it’s not, but not to the level we can see in some other states. If these trends continue to hold, you can bet this debate won't be going away anytime soon.