Our City-wide Government Benefits Unit, including the Disability Advocacy Project (DAP) help ensure that the economically neediest New Yorkers in every borough obtain and maintain the government benefits to which they are entitled, such as public assistance, disability benefits administered by the Social Security Administration, SNAP, and Medicaid. Our team of advocates also envisions and advocates for better programs to meet New Yorker’s actual needs. Together with our Law Reform Unit, the Government Benefits Unit addresses income inequality through affirmative litigation, and ensures that the agencies administering public benefits programs do so with the fairness and due process required by law.

Our Impact

Ms. G, a 47-year-old survivor of domestic violence, came to us seeking representation to obtain Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits as she was unable to work due to psychiatric conditions. She was living in a Department of Homeless Services shelter and prior to that had been in a small private domestic violence shelter in Staten Island that had recently closed, 

Ms. G. was referred to us by the New York City Department of Social Services under a grant we receive to assist cash assistance recipients who need home visits to apply for federal disability benefits. Order ordinary circumstances, obtaining federal disability benefits can require multiple appeals that can take years, even with an advocate’s assistance. In the case of Ms. G., our representation resulted in Ms. G. obtaining benefits much more quickly. Our advocate, Sarah, the paralegal case handler assigned to Ms. G.’s case, worked diligently to get all available records to provide persuasive evidence Ms. G’s conditions of major depressive and bipolar disorders despite the challenges Ms. G. had experienced seeking health care.  Sarah zealously advocated for Ms. G both by writing to the agency’s disability analyst detailing how these records supported Ms. G’s disability claim and by accompanying Ms. G to the consultative medical exams ordered by Social Security.  With our involvement, Ms. G stayed engaged in the application process, and through their teamwork, Sarah and Ms. G were able to secure her SSI benefits, effectively doubling her monthly income from what she was receiving in cash public assistance. 

That Ms. G. was deemed to need a home visit by NYC DSS, is an example of a reasonable accommodation guaranteed by a settlement in Lovely H. v. Eggleston, a class action lawsuit brought by The Legal Aid Society against HRA to enforce the rights of people with disabilities to get reasonable accommodations they need to access HRA benefits, programs and services.  In 2014, 90 clients per year received reasonable accommodations from HRA.  Today, because of the Lovely H. settlement more than 51,000 clients have one or more reasonable accommodations. 

Benefits Advocacy & Resource Building

In addition to the individual clients we assist, we advocate for reforms to government policies and practices adversely affecting our clients through administrative advocacy, participation and leadership in various coalitions and campaigns. We also build capacity in the community through various partnerships. We educate the coalition of providers that comprise the Housing and Health Consortium, Inc., a large network of health care, housing, homeless and social services organizations, and government partners on issues ranging from federal disability benefit advocacy to non-citizen eligibility for government benefits. We mentor associates from our partnering law firms in providing pro bono representation for our clients in federal court appeals of disability benefits denials and support a coordinated pro bono project assisting New Yorkers leaving incarceration to address the barriers they face. Our advocates serve as co-chairs of Practicing Law Institute programs training advocates on federal disability benefits representation and advocacy, as well as Cash Assistance and SNAP. We also take a leadership role in government-advocate work groups designed to address problems we see in our offices without resorting to litigation.

Partnerships

Our Government Benefits Unit advocates also collaborate also with legal services providers, community-based service organizations, elected officials, and medical providers to amplify the voices of the client community through resource- sharing and education. With a grant from the New York Bar Foundation for our Maximizing Access to Benefits for Low-Income New Yorkers Project, we have created Know Your Rights materials and presentations for distribution to the client community and the organizations that serve them. In addition, together with Columbia Law School’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic and the Empire Justice Center, Legal Aid created the fairhearinghelpny.org website, a resource for unrepresented applicants and recipients of cash assistance who seek to appeal unfavorable decisions in their cases. 

The Legal Aid Society has also partnered with the Empire Justice Center to help the Federal Protestant Welfare Agencies to establish a new, State-wide network focused on Cash Assistance reform,  the New York Cash Assistance Narratives Network, which is now a statewide coalition of legal services, advocacy and community-based organizations working with the aim of strengthening cash assistance programs in New York State and improving the lives of its recipients.  Legal Aid also sits on the Public Benefits Committee advising the Governor’s Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council (CPRAC) which is developing recommendations to reduce child poverty. We advocate for reducing poverty by increasing grant levels and adopting more expansive eligibility criteria for the receipt of benefits.  This work with coalition partners is advancing systemic change across the State and creating powerful opportunities for New Yorkers who rely on these critical benefits.