New Yorkers still face delays in receiving cash and food assistance, report shows

As the number of New Yorkers seeking cash and food assistance surges post-pandemic, many applicants still face delays in receiving benefits, according to a new report from a city watchdog.

New York City’s Independent Budget Office found that the rate of benefits applications processed within the required 30 days has improved since last year but falls significantly short of targets set by the city Human Resources Administration.

The report said staffing and training shortages left HRA workers dealing with a heavy emotional toll “when benefits cannot be delivered in a timely manner, with applicants in tears.”

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in March announced that it had nearly eliminated the backlog in cash and food assistance cases after a year of record delays in processing times and after advocates for low-income people had filed a class-action lawsuit over the issue.

But the IBO report suggests that HRA is still finding its footing amid the sharp increase in benefits applications since the pandemic. Meanwhile, poverty among New Yorkers has risen by a variety of measures, the budget office said, as many residents struggle to afford climbing living costs.

Only 42% of cash assistance applications were processed on time in fiscal year 2024, well below the agency’s 96% target, according to the latest mayor’s management report, an annual report card for city government. Just 65% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications met the timeliness requirement, falling short of the 90.6% target.

The budget office said that in addition to the spike in cases, a steep decline in staffing that only started to reverse in 2023 as well as the end of pandemic-era safety net programs and other procedural changes were behind the lags.

“These concurrent challenges have led to significant delays in the processing and delivery of essential benefits,” said the budget office report, which was released on Monday. “This in turn negatively impacts many New Yorkers, with both staff and recipients delivering public testimony detailing obstacles they faced as recently as May 2024.”

The Department of Social Services, which includes the Human Resources Administration, said in a statement that it has brought on additional staff to process benefits, intensified training and streamlined case management. There were 573,000 people receiving cash assistance as of last month, the most recipients in more than two decades and a 50% increase since the start of the Adams administration, according to a spokesperson.

"As the report notes, DSS has heavily invested in hiring front-line staff, and created technological efficiencies to speed up remote processing as we build on important progress making it easier for New Yorkers to apply for benefits with more than 90% applying online," the statement said. "Despite unprecedented challenges, the city has clearly prioritized the needs of low-income New Yorkers and we will continue to double down on our ongoing efforts to improve the timely processing of benefits while building on the record-breaking progress we’ve made connecting low-income New Yorkers to stable jobs."

According to the IBO, more than half of HRA workers handling cash assistance cases currently have less than three years’ experience, as do 41% of those handling SNAP cases. The report’s authors attributed this to the agency’s recent hiring push and longer-standing turnover.

The budget office said total cash assistance cases could decline this fall due to the resumption of work requirements that were suspended during the pandemic. The rules could lead more people to lose their benefits, but HRA employees will have to take on more work to check for compliance, “exacerbating challenges for the understaffed agency,” the report noted.

“Given the high number of new applications and ongoing cases in the last couple of years, cases are likely to remain high for the foreseeable future, especially [cash assistance] cases,” the authors wrote. “To address this elevated caseload, HRA must find ways to improve recruitment, retention and training, including potentially raising salaries for some of these positions.”

More than 557,000 people were receiving cash assistance in New York City in June 2024, a 16% increase from the year before, the mayor’s management report said. Almost 1.8 million people were receiving SNAP benefits, a less than 3% jump from 2023.

This story has been updated with comment from the city's Department of Social Services.