Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance: Cash, SNAP, HEAP

The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, known as OTDA, is the state agency that runs New York’s major public benefit programs for low-income residents, people with disabilities, and people experiencing homelessness. It oversees cash assistance, SNAP food benefits, home energy aid, Summer EBT for children, homeless shelters and supportive housing, the state’s disability determination service, and the fair hearing system used to challenge benefit decisions.¹

OTDA itself does not take applications or hand out benefits at a counter. The system is state-supervised but locally administered: OTDA sets policy and oversees the 58 local departments of social services (57 counties plus New York City) that actually process cases and interact with the public.¹ So when you apply, you deal with your local district, under rules OTDA writes.

How to Apply

Most people start at myBenefits.ny.gov. The secure portal lets you screen for eligibility, apply for SNAP, HEAP, and cash assistance, upload verification documents, check status, recertify, and manage your EBT card. It also pre-screens for programs OTDA doesn’t itself administer, including Medicaid, Child Health Plus, WIC, and various tax credits. The site is available in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Haitian Creole, Korean, Bengali, Yiddish, Urdu, and other languages.²

You can also submit a paper application to your local department of social services. If you apply for SNAP and have little or no money on hand, you may qualify for expedited processing, which requires initial benefits within seven days.³

Cash Assistance

OTDA oversees two cash assistance programs. Together they form New York’s basic safety net for people without enough income to cover living costs.

Family Assistance

Family Assistance (FA) is New York’s version of the federal TANF program. It serves households with at least one minor child living with a parent or relative caregiver, and it carries a 60-month lifetime limit. Once a family hits that cap, the case moves to Safety Net Assistance.⁴

Safety Net Assistance

Safety Net Assistance (SNA) covers people who don’t qualify for FA: single adults, childless couples, children living apart from parents, certain non-citizens who are ineligible for federal programs, and families that have used up their 60 months of FA.⁴

How Benefits Are Calculated

Benefits under both programs are issued twice a month using a “standard of need” based on household size and income. The standard covers a basic allowance for food, clothing, and daily expenses (issued through EBT), a home energy allowance, a shelter allowance for rent or mortgage, and allowances for special needs such as pregnancy. Separate grants may cover shelter arrears, moving costs, furniture replacement, and burial expenses.⁴

The BABY Benefit

In November 2025, OTDA launched the Birth Allowance for Beginning Year (BABY) Benefit, a one-time $1,800 cash grant for families on active cash assistance when a child is born. The money is loaded onto the household’s EBT card with no restrictions on how it’s spent. To qualify, the newborn must be born on or after November 5, 2025, and added to the family’s active case within 90 days.⁵

SNAP (Food Assistance)

OTDA runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, New York’s largest anti-hunger program. Eligibility turns on household size and gross income. As of October 2025, a single-person household without earned income qualifies with gross monthly income up to $1,696, and a four-person household up to $3,483. Households with elderly or disabled members have higher thresholds. Monthly allotments top out at $298 for one person and $994 for four.³

If you’re between 18 and 64, don’t live with a child under 14, and don’t have a qualifying exemption, pay attention to the “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWD) rule. It took effect in New York on March 1, 2026, and limits SNAP to three months in any three-year period unless you document at least 80 hours per month of work, job training, or other approved activities. OTDA Commissioner Barbara Guinn called the rules “federally mandated” and noted that exemptions exist for pregnancy, certain disabilities, and caregiving responsibilities.⁶

Home Energy Assistance (HEAP)

HEAP helps low-income households pay for heating and cooling. Payments go directly to the utility company or fuel vendor rather than to the household.⁷ The program has four benefit types:

Regular Benefit: a one-time seasonal payment for heating. For the 2025–2026 season, base amounts range from $900 or more for oil, kerosene, or propane down to $400 or more for electricity and natural gas, with smaller amounts when heat is included in rent. Applications close April 7, 2026, or when funds run out.
Emergency Benefit: for households facing imminent utility shutoff or fuel depletion. The 2025–2026 emergency season opened January 2, 2026.
Heating Equipment Repair and Replacement: for homeowners age 60 and older who need boiler or furnace work.
Cooling Assistance: helps eligible households buy an air conditioner or fan; applications open in spring.

Income limits for 2025–2026 are higher than for most other OTDA programs. A single-person household can qualify with gross monthly income up to $3,473, and a four-person household up to $6,680. The Emergency Benefit adds a resource limit of $2,500, or $3,750 if someone in the household is 60 or older or under 6.⁸

Summer EBT for Children

Summer EBT provides food benefits to school-age children during months when free and reduced-price school meals aren’t available. It’s open to students attending schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program, and many children are enrolled automatically through their schools.⁹ In its first year, the program delivered over $250 million in benefits to more than two million children.¹⁰

Help if You’re Homeless or at Risk

OTDA oversees emergency homeless shelters across the state and funds the housing programs that aim to move people from shelter into stable homes.

The Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI), launched in 2016, is building supportive housing for people with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence survivors, veterans, youth aging out of foster care, and other vulnerable groups. The goal is 20,000 units over 15 years, with about 1,400 new units targeted per year.¹¹

The Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP) is the capital side of that work. It funds construction, acquisition, and rehabilitation of permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, and emergency shelters. Outside New York City, HHAP can cover up to 100 percent of capital costs, and funded projects must stay in service for at least 25 years. At least $5 million per year is set aside for HIV/AIDS housing, with priority also given to ESSHI projects and housing for homeless veterans.¹²

Disability Determinations for SSDI and SSI

The “Disability Assistance” in OTDA’s name reflects its role in housing New York’s Disability Determination Service (DDS), a federally funded state unit that decides whether applicants medically qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). When you file a disability claim, Social Security’s field office checks non-medical eligibility and then sends the case to DDS. DDS gathers your medical records, arranges a consultative examination if needed, and issues the medical decision. An unfavorable decision can be appealed through a DDS reconsideration or in front of an administrative law judge.¹³

Fair Hearings: Challenging a Denial

If your local social services agency denies you, cuts your benefits, or ends them, you can request a “fair hearing” through OTDA’s Office of Administrative Hearings. An OTDA administrative law judge has authority to order the local agency to correct its decision. Fair hearings cover public assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, and HEAP cases.¹⁴

Watch the deadlines, because they vary by program:

60 days for public assistance and Medicaid
90 days for SNAP
As little as 10 days for certain work-activity disputes¹⁴

Telephone hearings have been standard since the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2026, OAH began piloting a system in which appellants call in at their scheduled time instead of waiting for the judge to call them, with a statewide rollout planned by summer 2026.¹⁵

1
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. OTDA Supervision of Local Social Services Districts
2
myBenefits. myBenefits NY
3
NY.gov. Apply for SNAP
4
New York City Bar Association. New York State Cash Assistance Program
5
Community Service Society of New York. Birth Allowance for Beginning Year (BABY) Benefit
6
Spectrum News. NYS SNAP ABAWD Changes
7
ACCESS NYC. Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
8
NY.gov. Apply for Heating Assistance (HEAP)
9
Summer EBT NY. Summer EBT New York
10
NYS Division of the Budget. Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance – FY 2026 Executive Budget
11
Supportive Housing Network of New York. Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative RFP
12
Supportive Housing Network of New York. Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP)
13
Social Security Administration. Disability Determination Process
14
LawHelpNY. What Is a Fair Hearing
15
NY Health Access. Fair Hearings