Constituent Services
In late August a constituent contacted our office after not having received his 2021 tax refund totaling $38,728.00.
After not receiving his tax return, this constituent contacted the IRS in April, June and August via phone and in person. Despite his several attempts to contact the IRS he never received an answer about the status of his return.
Our office recently helped a local hospital receive $12 million in federal funding owed to them from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for emergency protective measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including additional medical equipment, staffing and increasing Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and inpatient/outpatient bed capacity.
A local agency that provides social work services for 3,000 seniors and disabled individuals in our district reached out to our office after they were denied over $1 million from Medicare for the 60 providers they bill for.
Our office recently helped an 89-year-old Brooklyn resident restore his monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Our office recently helped two constituents recover more than $17,000 owed from the Social Security Administration after their mother passed away.
The constituents submitted all requested paperwork to obtain the funds due their mother's estate, however, every time they contacted the Social Security Administration they were told "it is being processed." After three years of no answers, the constituents contacted our office looking for assistance.
Recently our office helped a Brooklyn senior who lost thousands of dollars after one of his checks was stolen and fraudulently cashed.
He mailed a check to pay off a bill, only to discover the funds had been cashed elsewhere. His bank was uncooperative in helping him get his money back, so he contacted our office for help.
Our office reached out to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on his behalf, and we were recently notified that he recovered the almost $3,000 he lost right around Thanksgiving.
Two weeks ago, a woman came into our Brooklyn office looking for assistance in recovering retroactive Social Security (SSA) Disability payments she had been waiting on for more than two and a half years.
While she was awarded Social Security Disability at a hearing in May and started receiving monthly benefits in June, she did not receive any information about the retroactive payments she was entitled to. She tried to get through to SSA on several occasions to see when the funds would arrive, but each request went ignored.
Last month, a Staten Island constituent contacted our office for assistance with getting an update on his mother's Green Card case, as he had not received any information from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
A local organization in Brooklyn reached out to our office after being overcharged thousands of dollars by the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) to utilize space.
The organization, which runs a longtime Saturday children's program at a public school in Bay Ridge, received a permit bill of $48,000. Generally, they are charged between $8,000-$9,000 for the entire year.
Our office reached out to NYC DOE on this organization's behalf and resolved the billing error, saving the organization roughly $40,000 this year.
Our office assisted in expediting claims for our constituents who lost family members on September 11, 2001. These constituents were initially barred from receiving funding through the United States Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST), however, under legislative language first-introduced by our office, 9/11 widows and children are now entitled to equal compensation.