Press Releases

Federal officials say state agency, not recipients, responsible for error

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said today that federal officials have informed the Maine Department of Health and Human Services that 70,000 Maine families should not be required to repay approximately $80 in SNAP (food stamp) benefits that the state erroneously handed out over the course of several months.

"We heard from dozens of food stamp beneficiaries who suddenly, out of the blue, were informed that they owed the state $80. For people struggling to put food on the table, that represents a big hit to their budget," Pingree said. "These families didn't do anything wrong, the overpayment was due to an administrative mistake, and there was no way they could have possibly known they were getting a few dollars more a month than they should have."

Pingree said her office contacted the USDA after hearing from worried constituents.

The error, according to federal officials, came when state officials failed to follow federal guidelines inapplying the "Standard Utility Allowance"—the estimate of a household's utility costs used when calculating the need for food stamp benefits.

In all, federal officials say the Maine Department of Health and Human Services overpaid $4.8 million in benefits that have to be repaid.

Federal officials also expressly prohibited the state from trying to collect the overpayment from Maine SNAP beneficiaries.

The letter from the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service was addressed to Maine DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew and read, in part:

Over the course of the past year the Food and Nutrition (FNS) service discoveredserious compliance issues with Maine Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. These issues have significant policy and cost implications for the Federal government, for the taxpayers that provide financial support for SNAP, as well as for participating households that rely upon SNAP to make ends meet.

After additional review of the facts of this case FNS has now determined DHHS's error in implementing its SUA was a systemic error that caused the overissuances to occur. As a result, FNS is establishing a claim of $4,861,920 against Maine and is prohibiting DHHS from collecting the overissuances from the households affected by the DHHS decisions.