New York social security disability
New York Disability Lawyers: Your SSI Arrives as Two Payments From Two Agencies
New York runs and pays its own SSI supplement rather than letting Social Security fold it into one payment. Since October 2014 the federal payment has come from Social Security and the state supplement from New York's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, as two separate deposits. An approval here can produce two retroactive awards.
Most states either pay no supplement or let Social Security fold it into one payment. New York took the administration back, so a New York claimant deals with two agencies, two payment schedules and two sets of notices for what is legally a single benefit. That is worth understanding before an approval rather than afterwards.
2
Agencies paying your monthly SSI benefit in New York
11
Hearing offices deciding New York claims, one of them in New Jersey
Under a year
Typical wait from hearing request to hearing held
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What an approval is worth here
How the New York State Supplement Splits Your SSI Benefit in Two
Since then the federal portion arrives from Social Security and the state portion arrives separately from New York.
New York has paid a state supplement to SSI recipients for decades. What changed is who issues it. For most of that time the state paid Social Security to administer the supplement, and recipients received one monthly payment containing both parts, which is why many people never knew the state portion existed at all.
Effective October 1, 2014, the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance took over administration of the State Supplement Program. Since then the federal portion arrives from Social Security and the state portion arrives separately from New York. The state's own notice to recipients was explicit that this changed neither eligibility, nor the way benefits are received, nor the total amount, only the number of payments.
Two consequences follow that matter after an approval. The first is that a favorable decision can generate two retroactive awards, from two agencies, on two schedules, and someone watching for a single lump sum may not realize a second is owed. The second is that problems with the state portion are not Social Security's to solve; OTDA runs its own support line for the supplement. Our back pay page explains how retroactive benefits are calculated. Our back pay page
Where your case is decided
Which New York Hearing Office Decides Your Disability Claim?
Ten hearing offices sit in New York and an eleventh decides New York claims from New Jersey. The assignment comes from the Social Security field office serving your address, not from the borough or county you live in.
New York City alone is split four ways. The New York office at 26 Federal Plaza takes most of Manhattan, Varick Street takes Brooklyn and a slice of Queens, the Queens office takes the rest of Queens, and the Bronx has its own. Staten Island is the exception that surprises people: its two field offices are assigned to Jersey City, so the only New York City borough heard outside the state is the one across the harbor from New Jersey.
Upstate the offices are geographic rather than divided: Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, White Plains for the Hudson Valley, and Central Islip for Long Island. Our SSI claims page covers what the federal program requires.
The eleven offices
Every Office That Decides New York Disability Claims
Hearing offices
10decide this state's claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than neighborhoods. The Jersey City card lists only the New York field offices it takes; it also serves a large part of northern New Jersey.
Ten hearing offices decide New York claims: Albany, Bronx, Buffalo, Jersey City, New Jersey, Long Island, New York, New York (Varick), Queens, Rochester and Syracuse. Jersey City sits outside New York.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office and updates it monthly, so check the office that takes your claim.
Before any judge sees it
Who Decides New York Disability Claims Before a Judge Does
In New York the medical decision comes from a state agency, not from the Social Security office that took the application. A New York state agency makes it under Social Security's rules and at its expense, gathering your records and applying the federal definition of disability to them. Social Security takes the application and decides the non-medical parts, then sends the file out for that review and takes it back.
New York is unusual in having a second state agency in the picture as well, because the supplement is administered separately. So a New York claim can touch a state agency for the medical decision, Social Security for the federal payment, and a different state office for the supplement, and none of those three is the hearing office that would eventually schedule you.
Cities we serve in new York
New York Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across New York. Buffalo and Long Island have their own pages. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
New York SSDI and SSI Questions: The State Supplement, Back Pay and Offices
Why do I get two payments instead of one?
Because New York administers its own supplement. Since October 2014 the federal SSI payment comes from Social Security and the New York State Supplement Program payment comes from the state's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, as two separate deposits. Before that date, Social Security issued both as a single payment under contract with New York. The total did not change when the split happened; the number of payments did.
I was approved and received back pay. Should there be a second retroactive amount?
Possibly, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. Because the two programs are administered separately, an approval can produce two retroactive awards from two agencies on two schedules, along with two sets of notices. People who are watching for one lump sum sometimes do not realize a second is owed or has already arrived.
Which agency do I call about a missing state supplement payment?
Not Social Security. The State Supplement Program is run by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which operates its own customer support line for it. Social Security cannot see or fix an SSP payment, and calling the wrong agency about the wrong half of the benefit is the most common reason a problem takes weeks longer than it should.
Does the supplement change whether I qualify for disability?
No. Eligibility for the state supplement follows the federal decision in almost every case, so the disability finding is made once, under the federal standard, and the supplement attaches to it. The state runs the payment, not the medical decision.
Staten Island is in New York. Why is my hearing in New Jersey?
Because the Staten Island and Hylan Boulevard field offices are assigned to the Jersey City hearing office. Social Security drew that service area across the harbor rather than around the borough, and Staten Island is the only part of New York City heard outside the state.
New York has ten hearing offices. Does having more mean a shorter wait?
Not reliably, and this page will not print the figures because Social Security republishes them monthly and they move. What ten offices does mean is narrow service areas, so the office deciding your case is usually close to you. In New York City four separate offices split the boroughs, and which one you get is set by your field office rather than by which borough you live in.
Denied in New York? Let us look at it.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. We represent New York claimants from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations and hearings handled by phone or video. There is no New York office and none is implied. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which of the eleven offices your address routes to.