highly efficient , with one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program . In 2010 , only 3 percent of payments went to ineligible households or to eligible households in excessive amounts . Payment accuracy has been improving in the past few years , despite a large increase in SNAP enrollment . While some have attributed that enrollment increase to Obama administration policies -- Newt Gingrich has termed President Barack Obama the `` food stamp president '' -- in reality it has two main causes that have little to do with this administration . Millions of people hit by the recession a few years ago became eligible for SNAP . Today 's large SNAP caseloads mostly reflect the extraordinarily deep and prolonged recession and the weak recovery that has followed . Long-term unemployment hit record levels in 2010 and has remained extremely high . Today , 43 % of all unemployed workers have been out of work for more than half a year ; the previous post-World War II high was 26 % in 1983 . Workers who are unemployed for a long time are more likely to deplete their assets , exhaust unemployment insurance
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- In their attacks on the food stamp program , some Republican presidential candidates are leaving a deeply misleading impression of the nation 's leading anti-hunger program . No one aspires to enroll , but for those who must , it is an essential lifeline that addresses one of the harshest impacts of poverty and unemployment -- hunger . The food stamp program , now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -LRB- SNAP -RRB- , provides about 46 million Americans in about 22 million low-income households with debit cards to buy food each month . Participants include families with adults who work in low-wage jobs , unemployed workers and people on fixed incomes , such as Social Security . About three-fourths of SNAP recipients live in households with children ; more than one-quarter live in households with seniors or people with disabilities . SNAP reduces poverty while providing people with much-needed help to buy food . The program kept more than 5 million people out of poverty in 2010 and lessened the severity of poverty for millions of others , under a measure of poverty that counts SNAP benefits as income . SNAP is also