The federal government spent $95.0 billion on food stamps in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from $106.1 billion in the year before, according to the Treasury Department’s daily statement for Sept. 30, 2026. The prior-year figure comes from the statement for Sept. 30, 2025. The drop is about $11.1 billion, or roughly 10 percent.
What the Treasury statements count
The Treasury posts a Daily Treasury Statement each business day. It tracks cash flowing into and out of the government’s main operating account, which was renamed the Treasury General Account on Oct. 1, 2021, per the Treasury’s Daily Treasury Statement dataset. Withdrawals are listed by program. On the line for the Agriculture Department’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP and still widely called food stamps, the Sept. 30, 2026 statement shows $95,032 million for the fiscal year to date. The Sept. 30, 2025 statement shows $106,088 million.
Because the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, those fiscal-year-to-date numbers are the full-year totals. They measure cash that left the Treasury for the program, which is a different thing from the number of people enrolled or the size of the average benefit.
September was lower too
The month of September alone followed the same direction. The 2026 statement lists $7,447 million of SNAP withdrawals for the month, while the 2025 statement lists $8,840 million for September of last year. That is $1,393 million less, a decline of about 16 percent, steeper than the roughly 10 percent decline across the full year.
For a household that depends on the benefit, none of this changes what lands on the card in a given month. Monthly SNAP amounts are set by the program’s rules and each household’s own circumstances. The Treasury totals add up what the whole country received and say nothing about any one case.
The Treasury posts new SNAP spending figures every business day, and The Retirement Money Brief will cover the next development in food stamp spending in plain English when it happens.
Get the next update free → Free from RetireShield. Unsubscribe anytime.
The month-to-month detail matters because it shows the decline was still under way at the end of the year rather than something that happened early and then leveled off. A full-year drop of 10 percent that included a 16 percent drop in the final month points to spending that was running lower as the year closed.
What the statements do not say
The Treasury statements record spending and do not give reasons for it. A decline of this size could come from fewer households receiving benefits, a change in the average amount per household, differences in timing from one year to the next, or some mix of those. Which of them drove the 2026 figure is a question for the Agriculture Department, which administers SNAP, and for the state agencies that issue benefits. Nothing in the Treasury tables settles it.
What the tables do settle is the size of the change. SNAP outlays on the statements were $95.0 billion for the fiscal year, against $106.1 billion the year before, and the monthly comparison for September points the same way.
How food stamps compare with the other big benefit lines
The same Sept. 30 statement shows the size of other programs for scale. Social Security benefit payments were $1,471,087 million for the fiscal year, which makes food stamp spending a small fraction of the Social Security line, and Social Security payments rose over the same period while SNAP fell. In September alone, Social Security benefit payments were $125,037 million against $7,447 million for SNAP.
The prior-year statement puts Social Security benefit payments at $1,398,610 million for fiscal 2025, so the 2026 total is about $72.5 billion higher, a rise of roughly 5 percent. Measured over the full year, SNAP outlays equal about 6.5 percent of the Social Security line, going by the two Sept. 30, 2026 figures.
That contrast is part of why the SNAP number draws attention when it moves. The program is far smaller than Social Security in dollar terms, but it reaches households with low incomes, many of them with children, older adults or people with disabilities, so a double-digit percentage change in outlays is worth a closer look.
Following the benefit totals through the new fiscal year
The Treasury publishes a new statement every business day, and the fiscal-year-to-date figure for the SNAP line starts over at zero on Oct. 1. Anyone who wants to track whether the decline continues can compare the program’s month-to-date figure with the same point last year, using the Treasury’s own Daily Treasury Statement dataset as the free official source.
The figures to line up are the program’s month-to-date number and the same number from twelve months earlier. For September, that comparison was $7,447 million against $8,840 million. The explanation for any change will come from the Agriculture Department and state agencies, which publish enrollment and benefit data on their own schedules.
More Financial Reading
- How many CDs can you park at 1 bank? FDIC rules you must know
- Adding someone to your bank account: tax traps and smart moves
- Bank statements: how long to keep them and when to toss them
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
