Timeliness of NC food-stamp payments dipped below federal standards, state audit says

The timeliness of North Carolina’s food-stamp payments dipped slightly below federal standards between 2022 and 2024, according to a new state audit.

2025-10-15

Ninety-one percent of payments of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits arrived on time during those years, according to the audit released Wednesday. That’s below the 98% recorded in 2021. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, considers 95% to be an acceptable performance.

The value of the late payments in North Carolina was about $83 million between 2021 and 2024, the audit said, meaning 99.5% of the $15.7 billion in the state’s SNAP payout was distributed in a timely manner during those years.

The federal SNAP benefits, known as food stamps, are distributed by county departments of social services with oversight from the state Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child and Family Well-Being.

Late payments are a stressor for low-income families who rely on food stamps. And State Auditor Dave Boliek says there's still room for improvement. He called on several counties — including Wake, Cumberland, Edgecombe and Pitt — to fix a higher-percentage of slow payments. About 22% of SNAP payments were late in Wake and Edgecombe counties and about 14.4% were late in Cumberland between 2022 and 2024, according to the audit. About 20% of the payments were late in Pitt County during those years, the audit said.

Boliek also called on state officials to monitor counties more closely. “Despite repeatedly seeing there were delays in the distribution of SNAP benefits, DHHS chose not to enforce corrective actions,” Boliek said in a statement.

DHHS suspended corrective actions for late payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, department officials said in a response to the audit. They didn’t resume enforcement until April in part to account for “increased pressures” in county social services offices — including limited staffing and having to administer Medicaid enrollment after the program was expanded in the state.

Boliek recommended that the DHHS’s Division of Child and Family Well-Being conduct consistent monitoring of the timeliness of county SNAP benefit payments, enforce corrective actions, and ensure access to data to administer and monitor SNAP benefit payments.

The division said it would start monitoring the timeliness of payments more closely starting in November. The division said it welcomed the audit’s findings, adding that it “understands that even a single untimely certification can have real consequences. It might mean a missed meal for a child or a difficult choice for an older adult between filling a prescription and putting food on the table.”