Fox News retracts claim food stamp fraud at ‘all-time high’

Fox News has retracted a Tuesday story that claimed “an all-time high” for food stamp fraud.

“We reported that back in 2016 $70 [billion] were wasted on food stamp fraud,” Fox News contributor Abby Huntsman said on Friday’s “Fox and Friends.”

“That was actually incorrect. The latest information from 2009 to 2011 shows the fraud at 1.3 percent, which is approximately $853 million for each of those three years. Nationally food stamp trafficking is on the decline. So sorry about that mistake.”

{mosads}On Tuesday, Huntsman — who was recently named “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host and is the daughter of former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman — stated that fraud of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “was at an all-time high.”

“This year it is estimated $70 million in taxpayer money was wasted on food stamp fraud. Is it time to end the program altogether?” she asked.

The latest government numbers available actually show that food stamp fraud has been declining since the 1990s.

“Rates of trafficking have declined over time from nearly 4 percent of total SNAP benefits in the 1990s,” according to a 2013 U.S. Department of Agriculture report.