my libertarian-leaning republican friends answer to foodstamps

[Gormy Cuss]

24. USDA estimate is a 1% trafficking/fraud rate, substantial down from 20 years ago when it was 4%.

Finding evidence of trafficking/other illegal use in 10% of the investigations is probably a tribute to how good the fraud detection mechanisms have become. Electronic data allows investigators to flag patterns that seem suspicious and one would hope that the algorithms are efficient at identifying a high percent of the bad actors.

And for recipients, >99% are eligible (IOW, less than a 1 % fraudulent receipt) and >96% of payments issued to recipients are accurate in terms of eligibility (some recipients receive more than they are due but some receive less because of errors.)