Inside NYC’s Overstretched Social Services Agency

After 15 years working for New York City, a social services employee found himself carrying his laptop to choir rehearsals at night, obligated to work overtime for the first time in his career.

He was eventually removed from the choir last year since he repeatedly worked during practices. “I didn’t want overtime, but they said we had no option,” he shared.

Another Brooklyn-based eligibility specialist processing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications noted that many coworkers retired or quit during the pandemic, and hiring has lagged. Overtime has become frequent as a result.

“The city needs enough staff to handle these new cases,” said the specialist, who has worked at the agency for 13 years. Both staffers spoke anonymously about work conditions.

Their accounts illustrate the pressure at the city’s Department of Social Services (DSS), where staff reductions have led to rising overtime as remaining workers handle a flood of benefit applications.

The agency has had a series of challenges: increased caseloads from the pandemic, an influx of migrants requesting asylum, housing issues, and growing poverty. To complicate matters, it must also soon implement new Trump-era work requirements for SNAP — a significant challenge for staff tasked with tracking compliance and assisting recipients with employment.

But there aren’t enough staff to do the job. Almost 12 percent of roles at DSS remain unfilled; in October, out of almost 11,000 funded positions, the agency had 1,455 vacancies, making it one of the city’s most understaffed departments.

Consequently, existing staff have been stretched further. Overtime costs at the Human Resources Administration — the division of Social Services responsible for benefits — have more than tripled since 2014, rising from less than $22 million up to $75 million in the latest fiscal year. (Spending peaked in 2024 at $110 million.)