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Q&A
Inquiry into high rates of benefit case rejections due to verification issues
1:26:32
·
128 sec
Council Member Cabán raises concerns about the high number of case rejections for cash assistance and SNAP benefits due to failure to provide verification. She asks if the agency has reviewed these rejections to identify systemic fixes.
- Data shows 5,452 cash assistance cases (16.5% of all rejections) were rejected due to verification issues in Q2 FY25.
- Scott French explains that the agency regularly reviews data to identify trends and systemic issues.
- French commits to following up with specifics on the data Cabán referenced.
- The exchange highlights the need for ongoing improvement in the application and verification process to reduce unnecessary rejections.
Tiffany Cabán
1:26:32
So the the there was data reported for local laws January and January that showed that a lot of case rejections or closures for both cash assistance and SNAP benefits were due to a failure to provide verification.
1:26:44
So for example, in quarter two of FY twenty five, that's the October to December of of twenty four, the data shows that 5,452 cash assistance cases were rejected because of failure to provide verification.
1:26:58
And so this accounts for 16 and a half percent of all of the rejections in that quarter.
1:27:04
Have you guys reviewed this category of rejections to evaluate whether they are there are systemic fixes that can be implemented to decrease the number of those rejections?
Scott French
1:27:16
We do peer we review the data as is to identify trends where we see things may be growing larger than we have seen them in the past to identify systemic trends.
1:27:26
So I would have to get back to you on specifics as it relates to that specific data for that specific period of time.
1:27:33
But we are consistently looking at, right, where we see rejection rates or specific codes that maybe are all of a sudden becoming larger to try to identify what might be happening there.
1:27:43
Especially if it's something that's happening on our end, we definitely want to fix this.
1:27:47
Right?
1:27:47
We similarly take our jobs and our responsibilities to New Yorkers extremely seriously and certainly don't want to create challenges and difficulties for folks.
1:27:56
You know, our system is large and complicated and there are definitely places where we can improve.
1:28:01
And we're committed to improving and continuing to talk with you about where are there places we can improve the way we provide documentation to individuals and inform them of what's happening with their application.
Tiffany Cabán
1:28:12
I would certainly love a follow-up on what sort of conclusion y'all are drawing from, again, that as a specific example.
1:28:21
Because when I read that, what I am concluding is that there's a lot of people being rejected because they aren't able to verify the information they're providing in their application.
1:28:33
That's a huge number of rejections.
1:28:36
So I would hope to get a response on that.
1:28:39
Thank you.
1:28:40
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