Thompson v Brian J. Wing, New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance
New Yorkers Who Had Tax Refunds Seized Because of Food Stamp Overpayments Get Their Refunds After All
On September 5, 2003, the court granted final approval to the parties' settlement of a class action filed against the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and the United States Department of Agriculture on behalf of more than 400,000 New York residents who allege that the agencies violated federal laws and due process rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution in the way that the agencies seized income tax refunds to pay debts allegedly owed for food stamp overpayments. The press release describing this settlement does not state the deadline for filing claims.
From 1996 until 2000, the agencies were allegedly utilizing the Treasury Offset Program to reclaim alleged overpayments of food stamps. The Treasury Offset Program is a federal program that allows the government to take tax refunds to pay back debts. The action alleged that the agencies violated the law that created the program by failing to give adequate notices and by using the program to collect debts not covered by the program. Allegedly, the government took income tax refunds from many people who had just started back to work after years on public assistance and food stamps.
Over 400,000 notices have been mailed out to persons who had their tax refunds seized by the government. People who received this notice are advised that they do not need to respond to this notice unless they think the agreement to settle the case is not fair. Under the proposed settlement, people across New York state will either automatically receive a refund or will receive a second notice telling them that they can dispute, at a fair hearing, whether or not they did in fact receive a food stamp overpayment.
People who will receive funds automatically include: (1) people whose income tax refunds were taken nine years or more after the alleged food stamp overpayment; (2) people who were receiving food stamps at the time when the refund was taken; and (3) people whose alleged period of overpayment extended back more than 12 months before the debt was discovered.
