Constituent Services
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.
My office recently helped a constituent recover nearly $30,000 from a travel insurance company after he was hospitalized in Israel.
The constituent had a travel policy with a travel insurance company. Following his hospitalization, he submitted all the documentation the insurance company had requested, however, the only response the constituent ever received was that an agent would get back to him. For over seven months he did not receive any contact from the insurance company.
Recently, my office advocated on behalf of a constituent with a permanent disability to restore his Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
When this constituent's only parent passed away, the Social Security Administration (SSA) discontinued the SSDI payments he had been receiving since childhood. Not only did SSA withhold his payments for the past three years, but they also claimed he owed $16,000 in back payments.
Our office recently helped a constituent recover $850 after becoming a check fraud victim.
As this constituent was preparing to file his income taxes, he went through his checks and bank statements and realized one of his checks had been whitewashed, written to someone else, and cashed. He filed a claim with Chase Bank which was ultimately denied because he did not report the fraud within 30 days.
My office recently stopped the unwarranted garnishing of a senior citizen's social security for a child support order that was dismissed when he became the custodial parent.
This constituent was being charged $220 a month by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for a Child Support Order which he was unaware of as he had full custody. His attempts to resolve this issue with the SSA were unsuccessful so he came to our office for assistance instead.