New York, NY —

The number of people receiving food stamps in New York City dropped by over 18 thousand from June to July. It's the largest monthly decline since mayor Bloomberg took office. Reporter Lizzie O'Leary has more.

REPORTER: Advocates for the poor say they don't know why the drop is so large. But they still maintain that the application process is complicated and discourages people from signing up. Mayor Bloomberg says his administration has simplified the application process, and that this month's decline was simply out of the ordinary.

BLOOMBERG: we're doing everything i can and I guess I've been assured that what you really see, this one thing is pretty much an aberration of a change in the law that took place really a year or so ago.

REPORTER: That law automatically signed people up for food stamps if they received social security disability checks. But if they didn't use their food stamps for nine months, they were automatically dropped from the program. Still, the legal change accounts for only about a third of the enrollment decline. No one seems to know exactly how to explain the rest.