Relates to recovery of overpayment of certain assistance; repealer

• Democratic3

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Gustavo Rivera says this is needed

This act will simplify the Public Assistance and Medicaid overpayment recovery and collections process in New York and provide much needed due process and consumer protections for benefits recipients. Overpayment recoveries are intended to allow the State to recover for benefits that were received by individuals and families when they were not eligible for those benefits. However, the current overpayment recovery process in New York is deeply flawed. In many cases, beneficiaries who are subject to overpayments were actu- ally eligible for all or part of their alleged overpayment time period or were approved for benefits in error through no fault of their own. Often, budgeting rules and protections are misapplied in determining liability, claims are not properly calculated or validated, and benefi- ciaries are not given the opportunity to challenge the claims against them and to prove eligibility. The stakes for beneficiaries facing an overpayment are high: most overpayments are in the thousands of dollars and many in the tens of thousands. Still, due to the lack of protections for beneficiaries in this process, individuals frequently are pressured into signing settlement agreements for which they are not liable or that they cannot afford. Others are sued and many people are subject to default judgments, even in cases with little or no proof that a debt is owed. For many of these beneficiaries, an overpayment debt may push them and their family back into poverty just when they were getting on their feet or the debt may permanently trap them in poverty and threaten their wellbeing. Those that are the most impacted by the current process include immi- grants, those with limited English proficiency, and the working poor. Other states which recover benefits overpayments from recipients have more robust due process protections and procedures for beneficiaries. Beneficiaries in New York should have equally robust protections. This Act will not hinder a public welfare official's ability to recover bene- fits incorrectly received, but instead will ensure that any action or proceeding to recover Public Assistance and Medicaid overpayments are valid and vetted and that beneficiaries receive proper protections, including ensuring that any overpayment debt ultimately imposed will not threaten a beneficiary's and their family's ability to survive.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.