Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance
New York City Human Resources Administration

Fair Hearing Process

Public assistance benefits in New York City are administered by the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA). When benefits are denied, discontinued or reduced, the affected applicants or recipients may appeal the decision by requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). We examined the process used by HRA to monitor the results of these hearings. We found that, even though many HRA decisions are appealed each year, HRA officials do not collect data indicating why the decisions are appealed. In addition, even though many of the HRA decisions challenged in the hearing process are reversed by administrative law judges, HRA officials do not attempt to identify the reasons for these reversals and do not attempt to determine why the reversal rate is significantly higher for some HRA offices. Since hearings are costly and time-consuming, and can be burdensome for the individuals making the appeal, we recommend HRA work with OTDA to collect information that would enable HRA to improve its processes so that fewer of its decisions are appealed by public assistance applicants and recipients, and fewer of the decisions that are appealed are reversed by administrative law judges.

For a complete copy of Report 2000-N-6 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day NYCHRA response click here.
For a copy of the 90-day OTDA response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.