Int. No. 1148-A

By Council Members Cabán, Williams, Brannan, Hanif, Marte, Avilés, Ossé, Nurse, Zhuang, Schulman, Sanchez, Brooks-Powers, Krishnan, Menin, De La Rosa, Hanks, Banks, Won, Hudson, Brewer, Farías, Louis, Gutiérrez, Dinowitz, Rivera, Gennaro, Lee, Mealy and Ariola

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of social services to provide an application confirmation notice and document receipts for applications for benefits

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 21 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 21-153 to read as follows:

§ 21-153 Benefits application notice and document receipts. a. Application confirmation notice. No later than 48 hours after submission of a written or oral application to the department for cash assistance, including, but not limited to, emergency assistance as such term is defined in subdivision a of section 21-150, or supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits, the department shall provide the applicant with an application confirmation notice that shall include, at a minimum:

1. The date of the application submission;

2. A description of the information received; and

3. A statement indicating whether the application is complete or incomplete, and if incomplete, a list of all information and documents needed for the application to be deemed complete by the department.

b. Document receipts. Within 5 days of submission of a document related to an application for cash assistance, including, but not limited to, emergency assistance as such term is defined in subdivision a of section 21-150, or supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits, the department shall provide a receipt that shall include, at a minimum:

1. The date such document was received;

2. The type of document that was received; and

3. The names of the individuals whose information is contained in such documents.

c. Illegible documents. If the department determines that a document submitted as part of an application for cash assistance, including, but not limited to, emergency assistance as such term is defined in subdivision a of section 21-150, or supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits is illegible, the department shall notify the applicant that such document is illegible, and inform such applicant that such document must be resubmitted.

d. Electronic copy. For applications requiring an application confirmation notice pursuant to subdivision a of this section, the department shall permit the applicant to view an electronic copy of each document submitted by the applicant.

                     § 2. Report on additional benefits application notices and document receipts. No later than 1 year after the effective date of subdivisions a through c of section 21-153 of the administrative code, as added by this local law, the commissioner shall deliver to the mayor and the speaker of the council a report on the department resources that would be required to provide application confirmation notices and document receipts in the form and manner required by subdivisions a and b of section 21-153 of the administrative code, as added by this local law, for applications for all benefits and services provided, managed, or administered by the department that are not covered under such section. Such report shall include:

1. An analysis of any legal or operational barriers to providing such application confirmation notices and document receipts for applications for such benefits and services including any issues relating to confidentiality and data privacy;

2. A determination of the minimum timeframe required by the department to implement a process to provide such application confirmation notices and document receipts for applications for such benefits and services; and

3. An implementation plan to establish a process to provide such application confirmation notices and document receipts for applications for such benefits or services.

§ 3. Section 21-132 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 82 for the year 2005, is redesignated 21-132.1.

§ 4. This local law takes effect 180 days after it becomes law, except that subdivision d of section 1 takes effect 2 years after it becomes law.

KF/PR

LS #16317

5/20/2025 8:33pm