HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Jerralee King said she never expected to be looking for a job at nearly 85 years old. But after the state says it made an error and overpaid her nearly $9,000 in food stamps over several years, she said may not have a choice.

“Hopefully they’ll be hiring old ladies at that point,” King told 13 Investigates.

King said when she applied for food stamps in 2021, she had no idea she could be responsible for paying back the money.

For three and a half years, King received between $112 and $348 a month, according to her SNAP monthly accounting statement.

As a widow living alone on her Social Security check, she says the extra funds were a huge help.

“It made a big difference. It sure did. I didn’t have to worry. I knew that I had enough to sustain me,” King said.

Last March, King stopped receiving SNAP benefits, which are administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, but she said she wasn’t sure why.

Then, a few months later, she received a letter from the state saying she never qualified in the first place. The letter said she now must pay the state back the full $8,927 that she received due to an error the agency made.

“The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has determined your household was overpaid SNAP benefits. The overpayment occurred as a result of AGENCY Error,” according to the Notice of SNAP Overpayment Claim that King received on July 21, 2025. “The Agency failed to input the correct resource amount causing the household to receive SNAP benefits they were not eligible for.”

King said she didn’t initially believe the letter asking her to pay nearly $9,000 was actually from the state.

“I began to tell other people about it. Have you ever heard of such a thing? And they just looked at me like I’d lost my mind,” King said. “Then I realized, no, they really want their money back. Good luck.”

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) error rates

Overall, states made errors in 11 percent of SNAP cases when determining how much in food stamp benefits an applicant would receive. Under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” states who don’t get their error rates below 6 percent will have to pay a portion of their SNAP benefit costs starting in fiscal year 2028.

13 Investigates found King is not the only one being overpaid SNAP benefits.

Nationwide, the overpayment rate for SNAP benefits was 9.26 percent in fiscal year 2024, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Texas, the overpayment rate in fiscal year 2024 was 5.77 percent.

We asked the state for its overpayment rate for 2025, but they said it is not available yet.

Federal law requires states to claw back overpayments, even when the state is the one that messed up.

It’s a “fine print” reality most applicants won’t see.

Marty Orozco, litigation director for public benefits and outreach for Lone Star Legal Aid, works to help residents who have received SNAP overpayments to ensure the state is recouping the correct amount.

“There’s not really anything in the application that will warn them that there’s the potential for the agency to make an error that would result in the overpayment like that,” Orozco said.

Underpayment rates for states are also reported to the federal government, although data shows states are less likely to underpay a SNAP recipient than they are to overpay them.

Overall, Texas’ error rate for both underpayments and overpayments is about 8 percent, and although that’s better than the nation’s overall error rate, which is almost 11 percent, it’s not low enough for the federal government.

Under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed last year, states must drop their overall error rate to 6 percent or less or be responsible for funding a portion of their SNAP benefit costs starting in fiscal year 2028.

For example, if Texas’ overall error rate remains unchanged at 8.32 percent, the state will be required to contribute 10 percent of SNAP benefit costs, according to the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

States with an error rate higher than 10 percent will be required to pay for 15 percent of their SNAP benefit costs.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission told 13 Investigates in a statement that it is working to improve its SNAP payment accuracy.

“HHSC has implemented targeted case reviews, enhanced staff training, technology-based quality checks and clearer policy guidance to reduce errors and ensure families receive the correct benefit amount. These efforts help prevent mistakes before benefits are issued,” the state agency said in a statement.

Texas HHSC also offered tips on how to avoid overpayments, including making sure all of your household and pay information is correct when applying.

Still, Texas HHSC admits that even though what happened in King’s case is “rare,” she is still required to pay the state back $8,927.

“When you make a mistake, you have to rectify it in some way. You know, you don’t just bomb it off on somebody else and say, ‘Oh, I made a mistake here. You fix it,'” King said.

King hasn’t paid it back yet and now says she has little choice.

Last month, King received a letter from the U.S. Department of the Treasury notifying her the department will soon begin garnishing up to 15 percent of her Social Security benefits every month until the debt is paid off. For King, she said that’s about $200 less every month.

Orozco said if SNAP recipients see their benefits fluctuate drastically, they should call the agency to double-check what’s going on.

“If people are keeping track of their benefits on a regular basis and most people do because they want to know what they have when they go to the store to spend, and they see anything unusual, that should be a clue for them to take a closer look at their account and maybe reach out to us,” Orozco said. “They should also reach out to HHSC if there’s anything askew and immediately freeze their card and report anything unusual about their card.”

In King’s case, the overpayment went on for three and a half years before the state caught the error.

Now, as she approaches her 85th birthday in a few weeks, King said there’s uncertainty about how she will afford to pay off this debt.

“I wouldn’t take a quarter from the government if they begged me to at this point or for any reason for any kind of help,” King said.

Contact 13 Investigates

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This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.