New York Governor Changes Rules Enabling Thousands Of Migrants Eligible For Cash Payments (image@GovKathyHochul)
Reports suggest that New York has been giving cash payments to thousands of migrants who would typically not qualify for the state’s welfare programme. Democratic New York governor Kathy Hochul’s administration has quietly changed the state’s Safety Net Assistance programme, said the report.
The eligibility rules of the programme was changed in May last year to allow non-citizens receive cash payments. Non-citizens, who have pending applications for asylum to receive benefits were able to receive cash payments, after the change in the Safety Net Assistance was introduced. Thousands on migrants became eligible after the change was made, said New York Post report. The report was confirmed by Fox News Digital.
The move to change was made through the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). The report noted that OTDA sent message to social service agencies in the state. The agency did not reveal how many migrants are currently receiving payments.
OTDA spokesperson told Fox News Digital that just a “small portion” of the $ 4.3 billion that the governor set aside for migrant crisis has been used for the payments. The spokesperson said that about 90 percentage of the current migrant population in the state would not be eligible for the benefits under the new rules.
He said, “at the request of New York City, OTDA made a technical update to allow a small percentage of migrants to receive certain additional support in compliance with the state and federal law”.
The report said that around 173,000 migrants are there in New York City alone since 2022, which suggest that if 10 percentage of them were receiving payments, it would amount to about 17,000 recipients in the city alone.
According to the report, the migrants would only qualify for the payments if they completed their paperwork to apply for asylum status and can only use the checks, which is of hundreds of dollars for paying the rents, utilities, clothing or other necessities.
The chairman of the Eire County Republican Committee, Michael Kracker told Fox News Digital that the payments are “deeply offensive to hard-working New Yorkers, many who are struggling”. He argued that some among the struggled are homeless veterans, who, he argued, “are looking for help from their state”.
Republican Nicole Malliotakis slammed the revelatios and said that, “another way to attract migrants” to New York while lower and middle-class natives of the city struggled to make ends meet. Malliotakis told New York Post that people all over the world are coming to New York to advantage of programs put forth by the left-wing governor and mayor are implementing, “while at the same time, they are clobbering taxpayers over the head”.
The pogramme is also criticised by the Democratic City Councilman Robert Holden, which said “endless handouts to the entire world are a slap in the face to every citizen who has contributed to and sacrificed for this country”.
