{"id":433739,"date":"2025-12-08T17:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/433739\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:41:17","slug":"city-settles-lawsuit-on-late-snap-and-cash-assistance-benefits-impacting-thousands-of-low-income-new-yorkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/433739\/","title":{"rendered":"City settles lawsuit on late SNAP and cash assistance benefits impacting thousands of low-income New Yorkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Shopping\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Shopping for groceries in Manhattan on March 4, 2025. <\/p>\n

Photo by Dean Moses <\/p>\n

New Yorkers experiencing delays in their SNAP<\/a> (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and cash assistance benefits will\u00a0receive relief through a lawsuit<\/a> settlement reached with the City of New York, the Legal Aid Society announced on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agreement mandates a list of reforms to ensure timely access to food benefits and cash assistance programs, modernization of the Human Resources Administration (HRA)<\/a> and strengthening oversight of the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HRA will overhaul its systems, meet \u201cclear benchmarks\u201d for processing applications and renewals, implement limits on call-in interview wait times and other communication updates and modernize its online platforms, reps from the Legal Aid Society said in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing the New Yorkers in the case and legal assistance groups said the reforms will help \u201chundreds of thousands of low-income New Yorkers\u201d receive the food and cash aid more \u201cquickly, reliably, and with fewer administrative barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Lundgren, staff attorney with the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said low-income New Yorkers have been \u201cforced to wait\u201d for the benefits that the law guarantees them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement finally holds the city accountable and ensures that families can access life-sustaining benefits without facing unnecessary red tape, technical barriers or bureaucratic neglect,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

amNewYork contacted the HRA for comment about the agreement and is awaiting a response.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed in 2023, alleging the city failed to process applications and recertifications for SNAP and CA within the 30-day timeframe required by federal and state law. According to the suit, HRA \u00a0failed to timely process half of all SNAP applications in August 2022 alone. That same month, the agency failed to process over one-third of cash assistance applications in a timely manner, the suit alleged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dropped calls, long delays in accessing SNAP and cash assistance<\/p>\n

According to Abby Biberman, associate director of the New York Legal Assistance Group\u2019s Public Benefits Unit, New Yorkers faced \u201cendless delays, dropped calls and wrongful denials\u201d while attempting to access the assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement is a hard-won victory for those who have waited too long for food or cash assistance,\u201d she said. \u201cIt promises faster processing, improved technology, and the basic ability to complete an interview without spending hours on hold.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The settlement follows the recent uncertainty in New York when SNAP faced possible disruptions during the federal government shutdown<\/a>. The confusion sparked a series of threats, legal battles and responses from state officials to help ensure NYC\u2019s 1.8 million food-assistance recipients did not go hungry.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shopping for groceries in Manhattan on March 4, 2025. Photo by Dean Moses New Yorkers experiencing delays in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":433740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,42041,201143,201144,95070,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,6974,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-433739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cash-assistance","10":"tag-food-insecurity-in-nyc","11":"tag-hra","12":"tag-legal-aid-society","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-snap","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115685181880558935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}