SNAP benefits are supposed to buy groceries, not disappear into a scammer’s pocket. Yet that is exactly what is happening at a staggering pace, according to advocates, lawmakers, and community members who gathered in Pittsburgh on Friday to demand faster protections for food assistance users.
A new industry estimate from Propel found that scammers drained roughly $607 million from EBT accounts nationwide in calendar year 2025. Nearly $20 million of those losses hit Pennsylvania families, WPXI reported. Survey findings and local coverage say thieves often time their skimming to deposit days, quietly wiping out a whole month of food money and leaving households to borrow, scramble, or skip meals.
Local Panel Puts SNAP Skimming Crisis Under The Spotlight
Anti-hunger nonprofit Just Harvest convened a town-hall style forum at the UPMC Neighborhood Center to dig into what it called an ongoing SNAP skimming crisis and to push for both reimbursements and chip-enabled cards, according to Just Harvest. The group’s panel included state Sen. Jay Costa, Propel policy director Justin King, Just Harvest SNAP specialist Sarah Read, and community speaker Sabrina Jones, who all focused on how quickly stolen benefits translate into empty fridges.
State Senator Urges Chip-Enabled EBT As A Faster Fix
At the event, Sen. Jay Costa argued that the upfront cost of upgrading EBT cards is minor compared with what families lose each month. Referring to the price of the chip conversion, he said, “What we need to recognize is the cost to put these chips in is far less than the loss we are dealing with,” as reported by WPXI. Costa told attendees he is hopeful legislation to authorize chip cards could move this year.
Harrisburg Weighs Costs, Reports And Next Steps
Lawmakers in Harrisburg have already started to lay the groundwork. The Pennsylvania House has passed HB 1429, which would require the Department of Human Services to deliver a report on the costs, vendor readiness, and an implementation timeline for chip-enabled EBT cards, according to the Pennsylvania House Journal. Advocates at the Pittsburgh event noted that a dedicated line-item appropriation will still be needed before any statewide card overhaul can get off the ground.
Price Tag, Timeline And What Pennsylvania Could Learn From California
Turning on chip cards is not as simple as mailing out new plastic. It means upgrading payment terminals, coordinating among retailers and vendors, and living with a transition period that will not be instant. Local reporting has cited an estimate that Pennsylvania would need roughly $7 million in state funding, which is typically matched by federal dollars, to begin a rollout, and that implementation could take more than a year.
Supporters at the forum pointed to California’s experience switching to chip cards and the subsequent decline in thefts there as evidence that a phased rollout can work. In the meantime, they urged interim safeguards such as card-locking tools and blocking certain out-of-state transactions to give families at least some defense while the longer-term fix is studied and built out.
Panelists and organizers said the crisis is both a technical problem and a budget problem, one that will require lawmakers, payment vendors, and community groups to move in step if SNAP users are going to be protected from repeated benefit losses. Just Harvest and other local organizations left the meeting with a list of near-term changes they want pursued while Harrisburg sorts out how to pay for and schedule a full chip-card conversion.
