The Alabama Department of Human Resources is no longer restoring Alabamians’ stolen food stamps after Congress, in its stopgap spending bill signed by President Joe Biden last week, did not reauthorize the replacement of stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
The decision not to replace the stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly called food stamps, comes amid rampant benefit theft in Alabama, with ADHR, using federal funds, paying out nearly $5 million to theft victims in November alone across nearly 14,000 claims.
“The American Relief Act of 2025 did fund the SNAP program through Sep 30, 2025, however, the benefit reimbursement authorization is not a regular part of the SNAP program and was not included in the bill and therefore expired on Dec 20, 2024,” said Daniel Sparkman, ADHR communications director, in an email to Alabama Daily News.
Nearly 800,000 Alabamians rely on SNAP, receiving around $2 per person, per meal. Recipients of SNAP food assistance must adhere to strict eligibility requirements, including income caps, which as of late 2023 was $1,473 a month, or $17,676 a year for an individual, or $36,084 a year for a family of four. Eligibility also requires all working-age members of a household to be working or seeking work.
Skimming and cloning
Methods of fraud most commonly seen in Alabama include skimming and cloning of the electronic benefit cards, where devices are illegally installed on point-of-sale terminals to steal EBT card information. Online data breaches were also a common method of EBT theft, where SNAP recipients’ personal information, including social security numbers, are leaked online.
State leaders have sought to combat the rising theft, with the Alabama Legislature’s Contract Review Committee approving a $6 million contract in December for ADHR for a fraud mitigation initiative with the New Jersey-based Conduent State and Local Solutions Inc. Paid for with an even split between state and federal funds, the $6 million initiative will see chips installed on all EBT cards to help improve tracking transactions, as well as give users the ability to deactivate their cards remotely.
Sparkman told ADN Friday that, while the ADHR won’t be able to see stolen benefits replaced in the immediate future, the agency still encourages victims of EBT theft to report such incidents.
“Clients should absolutely continue to report any thefts of benefits to their local county DHR office,” Sparkman said. “The recent expiration of the reimbursement approval does not alter our efforts to implement security changes meant to combat these thefts.”
Alabama is not alone in experiencing a surge in theft. Claims for EBT theft increased by more than 171% between the second and third quarter of 2024, rising from 105,935 to 287,661, resulting in the federal government spending more than $53 million to replace the stolen funds.
Based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, if Congress does not reauthorize funding for replacing stolen SNAP benefits, recipients will lose roughly $1.5 billion over the next decade from theft. At the same time, food insecurity among Americans has risen in recent years, with 13.5% of U.S. households experiencing food insecurity, the highest rate since 2014.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alexander Willis and originally published by Alabama Daily News. It is reprinted with permission.
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