Expert: Mass. among worst states in SNAP payment errors, fraud detection

Massachusetts is among the worst states in the country in fraud detection, an expert says, as several public benefits fraud schemes have been uncovered recently by both federal and state investigators and after the Herald published shocking claims of “rampant” SNAP fraud and lackluster efforts to stop it by a Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) whistleblower.

“When Massachusetts [officials] say they don’t have a problem, they clearly have a problem. Massachusetts is in the top five of the worst states in fraud detection and in payment error rate for SNAP,” said Haywood Talcove, the CEO of data analytics company LexisNexis.

Payment error rate

Talcove pointed to data from a Biden Administration audit of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) in FY24, which found the Bay State to be among the five worst states in the entire country for its payment error rate. In that year, the USDA reported Massachusetts had a SNAP program payment error rate of 14.1%, of which, the vast majority was in overpayments (13.03%).

Massachusetts received over $2.6 billion, or more than $240 million per month, in federal SNAP funding in FY24, equating to $364 million in erred payments that year, of which, $338 million was in overpayments. Complete data from FY25 is not yet available.

“This is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and I’ve been using, just because it was from the Biden administration takes out the Trump politics. And I would argue that number (14.1%) is likely double,” Talcove told the Herald. “Massachusetts has just 11 people in the investigation unit (SIU) for EBT. And they’re pumping $100 billion a year through it (nationally).”

Talcove, who grew up in Danvers, has significant experience in identifying and combatting public benefits fraud, boasting a resume that includes two years on U.S. Secret Service raids busting SNAP fraud rings nationwide. He has also testified before both the U.S. House and Senate on the issue of public benefits fraud.

Transnational criminal organizations behind most of the fraud

When it comes to rooting out SNAP fraud in Massachusetts, Talcove says it should start with eliminating the state’s current self-certification policy to become eligible to accept EBT payments. Massachusetts has roughly 5,600 EBT vendors, of which, 70% are convenience stores, he says. Talcove says transnational criminal organizations use these businesses, most commonly convenience stores, as a vehicle to carry out significant amounts of SNAP fraud.

“What happens is transnational criminal groups get involved and they always tend to have some connection back to their home country. What they do is they fill out the USDA paperwork to become an EBT retailer – which is done all by self-certification in Massachusetts. The USDA has 256,000 stores in its system and you’re not going to get audited,” explained Talcove.

“These foreign criminal organizations get friends and teach them how to get stolen EBT cards or they just flat-out steal identities in various ways, like through point of sale (POS) terminals at grocery stores where customers swipe their cards, usually a terminal that’s been cloned from a bad third-party payment processing company. That allows them to pretend that they’re entering food into the system, but they’re just entering nonsense, and that’s how they get their reimbursement from the USDA,” he said.

Similar operations were seen recently in Massachusetts, including the recent $1 million SNAP fraud scheme busted by the Feds in early-February. That scheme was carried out by a Dominican national, two illegal immigrants and a green card holder who used stolen SNAP benefits to purchase quality meats and other foods to sell for a profit at their Leominster restaurant, El Primo. In December, the U.S. Attorney’s Office also announced the arrests of two Haitian nationals who ran a $7 million SNAP fraud scheme out of their tiny retail store in Mattapan. On top of this, the state Auditor’s Office has uncovered roughly $34 million in SNAP fraud in FY23, FY24 and FY25.

Turning over recipient data to the feds

This all as Gov. Maura Healey still refuses to hand over personal information on Massachusetts SNAP recipients, including immigration status, to the Trump administration and the USDA. Healey says the Trump administration has given her office no assurances that the data will not be passed on to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Talcove says every state, including Massachusetts, needs to share that information with the federal government if any serious effort to root out SNAP fraud nationally were to be pursued.

“The only way to stop the fraud, because it’s all connected across the country, is for all the states to share the data. For example, at LexisNexis, we see the same 10 identities being used in all 50 states. The states don’t see it because they’re operating in silos when it comes to sharing data. But it’s the most effective tool to stop fraud and improper payments,” argued Talcove.

“The people that are doing this are ghosts. They’re not a constituent of Maureen Healy. They’re not a constituent of any of the House or Senate members. They are synthetic identities or stolen identities. And what people need to get through their brains is fraud prevention isn’t benefit prevention. And integrity is not the opposite of compassion. It’s what makes compassion sustainable,” he said.

Last week, the Herald reported shocking allegations made by a whistleblower working in the Massachusetts DTA, who detailed “rampant” fraud within the state’s SNAP-EBT program, dating an extreme uptick in fraud cases back to 2021 during the surge in illegal immigration under the Biden administration. They also noted several concerns with DTA upper management and leadership, including setting a “tone of normalcy” surrounding drastic increases in fraud throughout the state and “in spite of intermittent outcries from staff.”

The whistleblower shared internal documents, emails and other communications, including summaries of monthly and quarterly meetings where they and other mid-level staffers repeatedly tried to address and convince leadership to further pursue fraud and abuse within the program.

The DTA denied the allegations saying, in part, “The Department of Transitional Assistance takes every allegation of fraud seriously and has robust systems in place to identify fraud and protect the people of Massachusetts,” in a written statement to the Herald.

The agency added, “SNAP fraud is very rare. Less than 1% of the Massachusetts caseload was found to have committed fraud in FY25.” In a long defense, a DTA spokesman emailed that “extensive actions” are taken “to protect clients from being victimized by fraud.”

The surge in illegal immigration has cost Massachusetts billions of dollars ever since Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency over the issue in 2023, utilizing the “Right to Shelter” law to provide free housing, food, and other services to thousands of migrants. The administration spent over $940 million in FY25 and $894 million in FY24 on housing and feeding illegal immigrants and shelter dwellers. Healey ended the state of emergency in August 2025.