Having work requirements for safety net benefits fails to recognize that not everyone can work, and that the circumstances that lead to people needing benefits at all are an issue of systemic inequities, not personal responsibility.
Now, as New York City reinstates work requirement rules to obtain public benefits like cash assistance, the bureaucratic issues already plaguing our systems will only add another barrier to access and exacerbate the caseload backlog. With HRA already struggling to distribute these subsistence benefits, this rule will keep more people from accessing vital benefits when they most need them, as NYLAG’s Abby Biberman explained for Gothamist:
“Abby Biberman, associate director of the public benefits unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group, said the new rules will only worsen the ongoing bureaucratic problems at an agency responsible for dispensing vital emergency assistance.
“‘This is going to lead to people losing their benefits and struggling to get them back, and that will potentially lead to people being evicted and facing other food and housing instability,’ Biberman said.”
Read the full piece by David Brand in Gothamist from July 15, 2024.
