Advocates Defend Labor and Disability Rights in New York Court of Appeals
Contact:
- Patrick Fowler, Communications Strategist | fowler@nclej.org
- Alex Dery Snider, Director of Policy and Communications | aderysnider@empirejustice.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 2, 2025
NEW YORK, NY: The National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) and Empire Justice Center have submitted their brief to the New York Court of Appeals in support of the plaintiffs in the disability and labor rights case Andersen v. Roberts, which concerns whether the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protects New Yorkers with disabilities who work as a condition of receiving public assistance while their applications for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are pending.
Read the appellate brief here.
A condition of receipt of public assistance benefits, called Safety Net Assistance (SNA), is that recipients are required to repay the Department of Social Services if they later come into money. In 2015, in a case called Carver v. The State of New York, the New York State Court of Appeals determined that a public assistance recipient who was assigned to a Work Experience Program (WEP) as a condition of receiving benefits was an “employee” under the FLSA, and that the value of that required work must be credited against their public assistance debt. Empire Justice Center, later joined by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ), subsequently brought Andersen v. Roberts to challenge the failure of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) to implement the holding of Carver statewide.
While a settlement agreement was reached under which OTDA agreed to apply the 2015 decision to its recovery of public assistance debt from inheritances, insurance payments, personal injury awards, and lottery winnings, OTDA continues to deny the same to recoveries from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
As part of the standard application process, all applicants for public assistance are required to agree that they will repay Safety Net Assistance benefits from any retroactive SSI benefits that they receive. When SSI is awarded, OTDA recoups the total amount of assistance it has paid, but does not credit the value of any work it has required the recipients to perform.
In December of 2022, the Albany County Supreme Court held that OTDA’s failure to credit the value of those work hours to SSI recoupments, as they do when they recover other public assistance debt, violated the FLSA. OTDA appealed and in August of 2024 the Appellate Division, Third Department, reversed, permitting OTDA to recoup the entire value of Safety Net Assistance from a lump sum of retroactive SSI without crediting the value of WEP. Plaintiffs then sought and were granted leave to appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals — a noteworthy event, since New York’s highest court accepts fewer than 5% of the cases in which Appellants seek review.
“By failing to credit SSI recipients for the value of their labor performed in a Work Experience Program, New York State is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, and wrongly actively taking needed funds out of the pockets of low income disabled New Yorkers,” said Susan Antos, Managing Attorney at Empire Justice Center. “The State’s position is simply indefensible. We look forward to arguing our case before New York’s highest court.”
“Our case is ultimately about defending the rights of disabled New Yorkers to public benefits,” said Saima Akhtar, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. “There is no reason whatsoever to treat disabled people differently when it comes to crediting them for the value of their work in workfare programs. The Office of Temporary Disability Assistance is in violation of the law by doing so, and we intend to hold them accountable.”
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice is a legal nonprofit organization that advances racial and economic justice for low-income families, individuals, and communities across the country through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. Founded in 1965, NCLEJ fights to protect access to critical benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare, protect low-wage workers’ rights and safety, advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, and fights unlawful debt collection.
Empire Justice Center Empire Justice Center is a nonprofit law firm that seeks to make the law work for all New Yorkers, especially those who need it the most by identifying critical issues, developing and implementing creative solutions and monitoring ongoing results. Empire Justice has protected and strengthened the legal rights of people in New York since 1973 through three major service areas; teaching the law by providing training, support and technical assistance to attorneys and community-based advocates to help better serve clients; practicing the law by providing direct civil legal assistance and undertaking impact litigation; and improving the law by engaging in policy analysis, research and advocacy. . Empire Justice has offices in Albany, Rochester, Yonkers, White Plains, Central Islip and Hempstead on Long Island. For more information, please visit empirejustice.org.
###
