Westchester County today offered the federal government the free use of space owned by the county as a replacement for the Social Security Hearing Office the feds plan to close on May 31 when its lease at 75 South Broadway in White Plains expires. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins did not name specific spaces covered by the offer, but did mention that the Westchester County Center features various spaces that could be used as a Social Security Hearing Office.
Jenkins, Congressman George Latimer, members of the county’s Board of Legislators, and administrative law judges who work for Social Security were among those who gathered at the County Office Building in White Plains on March 3 for the announcement of the county’s offer of free space.
Even though during the presidential campaign Donald Trump promised not to touch Social Security, his new administration has been making moves to close Social Security Administration (SSA) offices and fire agency employees.
Effective Feb. 14, many SSA offices around the country were abruptly closed to in-person services. People seeking help with Social Security issues from various offices around the country including the ones in Poughkeepsie and West Nyack were told they can no longer go in-person and need to contact the agency by telephone.
The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) notified U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives who represent the Hudson Valley about the closing of the White Plains SSA hearing office. AALJ said this creates a significant inconvenience and loss of services for residents of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Duchess, Ulster and Sullivan Counties.
Social Security Administrative Law Judge Som Ramrup, who is president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, was at the March 3 announcement and said, “More Americans will appear before a Social Security Administrative Law Judge than in any other judicial forum. It’s really imperative that clients who want to come into an office be able to do so conveniently. Our administrative law judges hear the stories of people who paid into the system for years. The Social Security program is just like any other insurance program. When you’re paying for insurance, insurance should be there for you when you need it.
“Imagine if you’re living in Poughkeepsie; imagine if you live in Monticello and you now have to go to the Bronx or you now have to go to lower Manhattan. We’re talking about people with significant impairments. Asking them to do that is a burden on them and is just not right.”
Latimer said, “Were this office to disappear from White Plains the next nearest groups of offices would be in New Haven, Connecticut, and Albany, New York, and the South Bronx, perhaps in Newark, New Jersey.”
He said it would be an incredibly difficult process for a senior citizen who lives in Port Chester, Mount Kisco or Yonkers to have to travel that far to make a case of why they should receive the benefits to which they are entitled.
“It’s not a gift. This is something people have contributed to from the very first day of employment,” Latimer said. “This is a commitment that the federal government has made to them and honored over an extended period of time. This is an essential office; its presence in White Plains is essential. This (the county’s offer for space) is a positive way to respond to something that is happening in the administration. We hope that the president takes us up on the offer, agrees to do this.”
Jenkins said that it’s important to understand that the county is taking a proactive step by offering the federal government free space.
“We’re going to be able to see what works for our federal partners and certainly we want to make sure that not just the administrative law judges but the people that work in the office and those participants have an opportunity to come here to Westchester,” Jenkins said. “This is the kind of partnership that everyone always expects working with our federal, local and state governments, that when you have problems you come up with solutions and not just pointing fingers and trying to throw our hands up in the air.”
