STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8449 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY December 29, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. WOERNER -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Social Services AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to payment of buri- al expenses by local public welfare officials The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 141 of the social services law is 2 amended by adding a new paragraph (c) to read as follows: 3 (c) (1) Applications for payment of burial expenses by a local public 4 welfare official or for reimbursement by a local public welfare official 5 for burial expenses paid by relatives or friends of the deceased shall 6 include all necessary consent forms to permit the public welfare offi- 7 cial to directly verify the deceased left no funds or insurance suffi- 8 cient to pay burial expenses. Applications for payment or reimbursement 9 pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision shall be due no earlier 10 than thirty days following the death of the recipient of public assist- 11 ance or care. 12 (2) Upon request of a local public welfare official pursuant to this 13 subdivision, any banking organization as defined in subdivision eleven 14 of section two of the banking law shall release a decedent's account 15 information to such official within three business days of receiving 16 such request. 17 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 18 have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD13474-02-3