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Ohio plans a new tool in an attempt cut down on food stamp fraud, and other states are watching the results closely.
When an Ohio resident tries to use an electronic benefits transfer outside of the state, it is "locked," meaning it must be unlocked by the user through an app or by calling a toll-free number before transactions are approved.
"Think of it like a credit card," Tom Betti, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, told The Center Square. "If you lock your card, nothing can be charged to it until you unlock it. The same idea applies here."
Cards are not automatically locked for transactions inside the state.
"Criminals from other states and online continue to prey on vulnerable Ohioans who rely on food assistance to feed their families," Job and Family Services Director Matt Damschroder Damschroder said earlier this year. "The new automatic card-lock feature will require customers to unlock their card when making an out-of-state or online purchase. It's a simple step that still allows for out-of-state and online purchases while dramatically reducing the risk of theft."
The state applauds the results.
From March 2025 through May 12, 2026, the state identified almost 56,000 suspicious out-of-state transactions, totaling more than $6.3 million Betti said.
The new locking system was launched in May. Through September, the state had only one suspicious transaction, Betti said.
"We do share information/strategies with other states and the federal government," Betti added.
By some estimates, incorrect food-state payments amount to $10 billion annually in the U.S.
"SNAP is structurally prone to waste, fraud, and abuse, and the states running it have little financial incentive to fix it," the Cato Institute said.
The improper payment rate for SNAP is triple what it was in fiscal year 2013, Cato said.
Part of the problem is a "mismatch" in how the program SNAP is financed, according to Cato.
"The states administer SNAP, but federal taxpayers foot the bill for more than 90 percent of the program's costs," Cato stated. "This gives states an 'all gain, no pain' arrangement in which the financial consequences of lax oversight and administrative inefficiency fall almost entirely on federal taxpayers."