Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance

Supplemental Security Income Maximization

New York State’s public assistance programs are overseen by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), and are administered by local social services districts (57 counties and New York City). OTDA encourages the local districts to identify public assistance recipients who may be eligible for federally funded Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and refer such individuals for SSI application. If the individuals are found to be eligible for SSI benefits, they are better off because SSI benefits are greater than public assistance benefits. The State and the local districts are also better off, because public assistance benefits are partially funded by the State and the local districts, while SSI benefits are federally funded. We examined whether eight local districts appeared to be making an adequate effort to identify public assistance recipients who should be referred for SSI application and found that the eight districts did appear to be making such an effort. We estimated that, during our two-year audit period, these efforts had resulted in total State and local district savings of about $34 million statewide.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-28 click here.