{"id":196139,"date":"2026-03-15T09:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/urgent-snap-warning-as-recipients-risk-losing-555-million-if-system-doesnt-change\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T15:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T19:35:13","slug":"urgent-snap-warning-as-recipients-risk-losing-555-million-if-system-doesnt-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/urgent-snap-warning-as-recipients-risk-losing-555-million-if-system-doesnt-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent SNAP warning as recipients risk losing $555 MILLION if system doesn’t change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Urgent SNAP warning as recipients risk losing $555 MILLION if system doesn’t change<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/money\/16086808\/snap-warning-recipients-risk-losing-money\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-15 09:24:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.the-sun.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

A MAJOR warning has been issued over SNAP theft, with lawmakers racing to stop hundreds of millions of dollars from vanishing from benefit cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The push comes as Congress weighs a new bill aimed at overhauling the security of the cards millions of Americans use to buy food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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SNAP could lose about $555 million to fraud unless the system is modernisedCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n

The bill would also force USDA to update its cybersecurity regulations for SNAP cardsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

A USDA inspector general report said SNAP could lose about $555 million to fraud unless the system is modernised.<\/p>\n

That figure combines $322 million already replaced between October 2022 and December 2024 with another $233 million the watchdog forecast could be stolen in fiscal 2025 and 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the center of the fix is the Enhanced Cybersecurity for SNAP Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would push states to move away from old magnetic-stripe EBT cards and toward chip-enabled cards that are harder to clone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Lawmakers say the current cards are highly exposed to skimming, a scam in which thieves copy card data from the stripe and make duplicates to drain benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The USDA watchdog said the Food and Nutrition Service has not required states to adopt security standards strong enough to detect and prevent SNAP benefit theft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York lawmakers are among the bill\u2019s leading backers. <\/p>\n

Representatives Dan Goldman and Mike Lawler are co-sponsors in the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goldman said the measure would help New York as it starts upgrading its EBT cards and trying to stop SNAP theft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawler said the goal is to bring SNAP cards up to the same security standards Americans expect from their banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposal is also bipartisan in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Senators Ron Wyden, Bill Cassidy and John Fetterman have backed the same push to strengthen card security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supporters say this is not a small paperwork tweak.<\/p>\n

They say criminals have been exploiting lax cybersecurity for years while families with low incomes are left without money meant for groceries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would also require the USDA to update its SNAP card cybersecurity regulations, which lawmakers say have not kept pace with current fraud methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That matters because the old-style magnetic stripe is the weak point.<\/p>\n

Most proposals now focus on integrated circuit chip cards, the same type of protection commonly used on regular debit and credit cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scale of the problem has already been felt on the ground.<\/p>\n

City Limits reported that in New York alone, $14 million in SNAP benefits were stolen in the first half of last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The federal bill is designed to give states funding and guidance as they shift to the newer cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not the only SNAP change hitting recipients right now.<\/p>\n

Separate work rule changes for some able-bodied adults without dependents began on March 1, 2026, in places including New York, adding to the sense of upheaval around the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urgent SNAP warning as recipients risk losing $555 MILLION if system doesn’t change https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/money\/16086808\/snap-warning-recipients-risk-losing-money\/ Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/03\/newspress-collage-gg5gpr3zs-1773579030730.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&1773564657&w=1920&h=1080&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-196139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196141,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196139\/revisions\/196141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}