Department of Legal Counsel

Benefits/Entitlements

The CSS Department of Policy Research and Advocacy has a long history of providing critical evaluations and policy reforms of a number of governmental programs that provide statutory benefits and entitlements to poor New Yorkers. CSS’s legal advocacy efforts follow these efforts with specific proposals for legal intervention strategies. Currently, we are working, in coalition with other public interest organizations, to develop legal intervention strategies addressing public assistance benefits (particularly child care), training and educational opportunities for low-income New Yorkers, and increasing job opportunities for residents of public housing through federally funded construction projects.

CSS v. Cuomo (1992): In this state court challenge to the Department of Social Services’ new threshold utilization formulae for Medicaid, CSS teamed up with other legal offices including the Legal Aid Society to stop new policies that lowered benefits. The city eventually reverted to the original policies