The Palmetto State is facing a potential double-whammy of higher state food aid costs and more hungry South Carolinians as federal food assistance cuts under President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Budget Bill start to kick in next month.
Budget experts say the threats arise from two cost-saving measures in the bill: punitive cost-shifting to states that run high SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) error rates and strict new eligibility requirements on recipients.
With a current SNAP error rate of 9.25%, S.C. taxpayers could be forced to pay $140 million in food assistance costs that are currently covered by the federal government.
“This is a huge shift in federal policy and really the state operations,” Connelly-Anne Ragley of the S.C. Department of Social Services (DSS) told WIS-TV this week.
DSS is asking for $34 million in next year’s budget to lower the state’s error rate and defray increased administration expenses for the program.
The second issue facing S.C. — more hungry people — is the result of new work requirements affecting as many as 40,000 formerly exempt state residents, primarily veterans, homeless individuals and young adults just out of foster care.
Children, pregnant women, mothers of young children and certain groups of students and medical patients remain exempt under the new requirements.
Officials say SNAP recipients should soon receive a letter explaining the current status of their benefits.
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