Schumer: Thousands More NY'ers Can Now Access Emergency Funds

New York City NY

01 September, 2021

3:52 PM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — Thousands of New Yorkers who struggled to access the roughly $2 billion New York State Excluded Workers Fund may now be able to thanks to bureaucratic rule changes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced at a Tuesday news conference at Diversity Square in Jackson Heights. To qualify for the Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), a $2.1 billion fund providing emergency financial assistance to low-income New Yorkers who lost income due to the pandemic and are not eligible for federal relief programs like unemployment and pandemic benefits, workers needed to obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) from the IRS. However, office closures and a backlog of more than 74,000 claims nationwide meant that at least 4,000 eligible New Yorkers would need to wait at least a year to receive their ITIN numbers. Schumer worked with State Senator and New York State Committee on Labor Chair Jessica Ramos and Assembly members Carmen De La Rosa and Jessica González-Rojas to expand taxpayer assistance operations and dedicate more staff to clear the backlog. In April, they sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig that asked for "sufficient personnel and technological resources to work expeditiously through this ITIN application backlog and expected increase in applications, and to expand IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center operations to accomplish these goals." Their campaign was mostly successful, and now, workers will be able to access the EWF by providing proof of a pending ITIN and a stamped W-7 form, the application to apply for an ITIN. "This morning, we are announcing that the IRS has found a new way so that these workers can get their money immediately and not have to wait for an ITIN for a whole year," Schumer said Tuesday at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, accompanied by Ramos, De La Rosa, and other local Democratic lawmakers and activists. "There are seven offices around the city that you go to. They're not going to ask you for anything but your application. They stamp it, and you're done." Ramos called the changes a "huge economic boom for small businesses and our community" and a "very, very big deal." Ramos also advocated for other ways to make it easier to obtain the paperwork necessary to access the EWF, like more appointments to obtain IDNYC cards, or better processes at general consulates to obtain important documents like birth or marriage certificates. "We passed historic relief in New York for these excluded workers," she said. "Now we need to make sure they can access these programs by expediting the ITIN process." Applicants who lost income because of the pandemic and didn't receive federal aid are eligible for a lump sum of $15,600, or almost $300 a week for the year. The $2.1 billion program is the largest program of its kind in the county. Still, De La Rosa argued that the EWF maximum payout of $15,600 was insufficient and not a wage replacement. "This is emergency aid," she said. "But it is a welcome drop in the bucket because after a year and a half of zero for many of these families, this money will mean the difference between a child having access to a computer or internet service when school starts." Schumer, Ramos, and De La Rosa also noted that the number of New Yorkers unable to access the EWF may be higher than 4,000, since there are an estimated 290,000 undocumented immigrants, and some have not yet filed ITIN applications, according to Fiscal Policy Institute estimations.