UCLA Law

The NLSLA public benefits team assists individuals who are having difficulty accessing or maintaining public benefits that they rely on to eat, maintain their housing, pay for medicine, and generally survive. These benefits are administered by the Los Angeles County Department of Public and Social Services (DPSS), and include CalFresh (Food Stamps), CalWORKs (welfare), General Relief (cash aid for indigent adults), CAPI (cash assistance for elderly and disabled immigrants) and other benefits. We also focus on Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits, such as SSI, SSDI and Retirement, which often are the only sources of income for disabled and elderly people. Our practice is growing, with an increased focus on immigrant access to public benefits, and ensuring access to benefits during the pandemic.

We are looking for volunteers to support us in our case work and special projects. Responsiblities could include legal research and writing, drafting appeal letters to SSA, and drafting briefs for administrative hearings before an Administrative Law Judge. A volunteer also could be involved in potential impact litigation, and policy advocacy at the state/local levels. Public benefits advocates provide training and technical assistance to other organizations and legal services providers, and promote access to public benefits in a range of forums. A volunteer could support with creating community-facing presentations and flyers, and potentially presenting information on benefits to community groups.

The number of hours expected will vary by project but will likely be a minimum of 10 hours.

If interested, please contact Lena Silver, supervising attorney, at lenasilver@nlsla.org.