Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Kimberly Merolla-Brito strode toward lawmakers clutching stacks of papers detailing the plan to overhaul the state’s food assistance program. But the director for the Department of Human Services barely glanced at the binder of materials during her hourlong presentation to the House Committee on Finance on March 25.

She didn’t need to. 

Merolla-Brito has spent much of the last year immersed in the herculean task of improving accuracy in Rhode Island’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program has been perennially burdened by mistakes in the distribution of benefits, at its worst overpaying or underpaying more than 20% of the 140,000 low-income, senior, disabled and unhoused residents who rely on the monthly grocery benefits. 

As of fiscal 2024, the most recent data available, the error rate was 12.3%, slightly above the 10.9% national average. 

Reducing errors — a longstanding ambition of state administrators — is now an urgent priority across the country after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as H.R. 1, imposed significant financial penalties for states with error rates higher than 6%. Only five states reported error rates less than 6% in fiscal 2024. 

States that fail to meet the new federal limit on errors by Oct. 1, 2027,  based on the error rates from fiscal 2025 or 2026 benefits distribution, will be responsible for as much as 15% of the cost of the federal program, with the cost share determined by their error rate. 

If accuracy problems persist, Rhode Island could pay up to $100 million a year for its food benefits program. 

“We’re concerned,” Merolla-Brito said in an interview in the State House basement hallway after her remarks to lawmakers. “We’re really motivated with the progress. We’re making policy decisions. We saw a lot of processes that needed to be more consistent.”

Preliminary analysis by the department showed evidence of that progress — the error rate dropped to 7.6% in October, Merolla-Brito told lawmakers.

The early indicator comes as the agency begins to act on recommendations laid out in a state-commissioned report published in September. The list of recommendations to bring Rhode Island in line with federal mandates ranges from seemingly obvious fixes, like shortening and simplifying the 40-page application, to more difficult changes, like using artificial intelligence to manage workflow and reduce wait times in the agency call center. 

Fraud unfounded 

Republicans frame the nationwide problem of SNAP payment error rates as deliberate fraud, alleging that low-income families are taking advantage of the system. But evidence shows the most common source of program errors — over, and under — are caused by mistakes in entering application information, like household size or income, or because of changing circumstances, like a move to a different address. More frequent reviews, and updates to information, could head off these accidental inaccuracies, according to the report. 

“I certainly don’t think it is about folks gaming the system,” said Courtney Smith, senior director of innovation and outreach for United Way of Rhode Island. “It’s about the application being available in ways that are culturally accessible and in language that people can understand.” 

United Way is among dozens of community organizations that help answer questions and guide people through the application process, both through its 2-1-1 call center and in-person representatives at weekly food pantries and community events where people eligible for benefits might be. 

Many of the situations that qualify residents for food assistance — lack of stable housing or private transportation, veteran status and age, disability, a large family size — also make it more difficult for them to comply with the administrative requirements. 

“We see all the time here, people who need to request child care to go to DHS for an appointment,” said Heather Hole Strout, executive director for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport. “If you’re someone working in an hourly position and don’t have PTO, you sometimes miss those deadlines.”

Paperwork can be completed online, but also requires reliable internet access — an amenity missing for 12% of the state, according to a 2021 report.

Like other community advocates and providers, Strout worries that Rhode Island’s plan to reduce SNAP error rates, however well-intentioned and financially necessary, will reduce vulnerable residents’ access to critical food assistance, even if they are still eligible.

Which, to public policy groups like the Economic Progress Institute, is the point.

“These more frequent recertifications will absolutely cause more people to lose benefits due to churn,” said Nina Harrison, the institute’s policy director. “I think that’s by design on the federal government’s part. They don’t seem to be sincerely concerned with improving accuracy.”

The short timeline for states to meet new error rate limits alongside sweeping changes to SNAP eligibility is a recipe for more mistakes, not fewer, she added

“If they were truly concerned about reducing error rates, they would roll out these changes in slow and measured ways,” Harrison said.

In search of staffers 

The Department of Human Services is already strained by long- and short-term staffing shortages. The 88 vacant positions as of March 13 — just over 10% of its 779 funded positions — is a marked improvement over the post-COVID workforce, when vacancies climbed to 16%. 

But, a newer problem has emerged: paid leave. 

Roughly 80 of the 691 people on agency payroll are on approved family or medical leave, adding pressure to daily operations, Merolla-Brito told lawmakers. While searching for explanations for the rise in paid leave, which has doubled in the last three years, Merolla-Brito is simultaneously making the case for more funding for new positions.

Gov. Dan McKee’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget includes an extra $18.1 million for 29 new department employees, tied mostly to the administrative and technological burden associated with overhauling SNAP and Medicaid.

The funding — $8.6 million from state coffers, boosted by federal dollars — is not insignificant amid forecast budget deficits and a host of rising costs, including many tied to H.R. 1. But it’s better to pay less up front than face cost-sharing penalties later if Rhode Island can’t comply with federal mandates, Merolla-Brito told lawmakers.

“The funding is directly tied to an increased workload and the ability to improve accuracy,” she said. “There’s a risk in continuing to operate at the levels we are at.”

Despite existing vacancies and workers on leave, Merolla-Brito was confident she’d be able to hire for the new positions, if given the money, with aggressive recruiting efforts already set to bring on 30 more workers by June.

The new positions requested include those for quality oversight, data analysis, policy implementation and training for existing staff. The consultant report on SNAP highlighted the department’s fragmented process for vetting prospective SNAP applicants, which in turn results in mistakes. Regular training and internal communication is critical to correcting those errors, with the added benefit of fostering an environment where employees feel committed to the importance of their work despite the pressure and hours that often come with the job.

“We went through many years of changing leadership, which hurt the agency,” Merolla-Brito said in an interview. “Now that we’ve been consistent for four years, we’re starting to see that trust rebuilt. Really bringing the frontline workers into the decision process, development plans, has been very helpful.”

Distrust is growing for social services recipients because of federal changes restricting eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid based on immigration status, work mandates, and other standards. While many of these changes don’t take effect for another year or more, SNAP participation has already fallen due to what Merolla-Brito described as the “socialization” of federal changes.

SNAP participation declines

Rhode Island is not alone. The 7% drop in food assistance participation across the Ocean State from July 1, 2025 — when H.R. 1 was signed into law — to December, is only a little higher than the 6% drop across the nation, according to a Center for Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of federal data. Declines were even more significant elsewhere: down 32% in Arizona and 12% in Virginia, for example.

Calls to Rhode Island United Way’s 2-1-1 helpline for SNAP information or help with applications have also dropped — from 203 in November in the midst of the government shutdown that temporarily suspended food benefits payments — to 134 in February, the most recent data available. Face-to-face questions and applications for food assistance during the nonprofit’s community outreach events fell more sharply: from 798 in November to 100 in February.  

New work and volunteer requirements that began March 1 are expected to affect 9,000 people on food assistance in Rhode Island. If they can’t find and submit proof of work or volunteer hours, they will lose benefits.

Another 2,300 refugees and legal asylum seekers in Rhode Island were already cut off from food assistance on Feb. 1 because of their immigration status. 

At the same time, lines at local food pantries and soup kitchens are growing longer, an anticipated but still concerning trend for nonprofit organizers. 

“Just because people are no longer eligible for SNAP, or don’t fill out the paperwork doesn’t mean they stop eating,” said Melissa Cherney, CEO for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. “We’re already strapped, and we have less food than we had last year, serving more people.”

Cherney, who herself received food assistance during college, feared the additional and more frequent paperwork required under the state’s error rate improvement plan would be too difficult for some recipients to meet.

Merolla-Brito emphasized the ways the state is trying to make it as easy as possible, expanding an existing pilot program that lets SNAP applicants complete their required interviews by returning a call from the agency when they have time, rather than having to schedule an appointment in advance or wait hours on the phone. 

The agency call center, plagued by hourslong wait times, is also a target for improvement, with additional people and new technology expected to reduce average wait times up to 20%, according to the consultant’s report.

AI enters the chat 

Part of the agency funding requested in the fiscal 2027 budget would pay for an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to screen the 50,000 calls coming into the agency center each month. Seeking to head off any concerns from lawmakers over the use of AI, Merolla-Brito stressed that the chatbot’s use would be limited, not replacing state workers nor making any decisions regarding applicants’ eligibility or benefit amounts. 

“This is not an aggressive jump,” she said after the hearing. “It’s more in line with what you’re dealing with when you go online to do some of your banking, and a chat bot messages you to route you to the right person.”

But, she acknowledged that some groups, like seniors or people with disabilities, may struggle to navigate even a short interaction with a robot. Community groups are critical, able to leverage personal relationships and face-to-face interactions to reassure, guide and redirect applicants and benefits recipients to the agency.

Except, federal funding for local SNAP outreach programs has also been cut in half under H.R.1. McKee’s fiscal 2027 budget seeks to temporarily fill that gap  by doubling state funding for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and its community partners to $2 million. 

The possibility of extra money and Merolla-Brito’s confident, can-do attitude weren’t enough to overcome some lawmakers’ concerns.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a smooth transition,” Rep. Karen Alzate, a Pawtucket Democrat, said during the March 25 hearing. “These changes, I knew they were going to be bad when this first happened, but going through this budget now, my mind is like ‘oh my God, so many people are going to be hurt.’”