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Expectations of speedier and better help for struggling mortgage borrowers have been low on Long Island despite the White House crackdown on lenders last month, homeowner advocates said this week.

The Obama administration last month announced it had begun withholding financial incentives from three major lenders in the homeowners rescue program known as Making Home Affordable, saying "substantial improvement" was needed in handling borrowers' requests for lower payments.

Lenders and loan servicers get money under the program for each delinquent borrower given "trial" changes to the mortgage, for writing off second liens and for making other adjustments to help homeowners.

"It's not been dramatically different than what was happening before," said Joan LaFemina, who runs foreclosure prevention efforts for the nonprofit Community Development Corp. of Long Island. In the past, when federal officials chastised lenders, customer service improved for a month and then "things start to worsen again," she said.

But withholding money from Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase was the first time the White House has put teeth behind its criticism. Since the program's debut in 2009, federal officials have pressured lenders and loan servicers to help more people, decide faster and follow the program's guidelines.

The three institutions say that the withholding of incentives was based on old data and that they've made several improvements since then, including assigning one contact person per borrower.

"We believe future reviews will confirm that progress," Bank of America said in a statement that also reflected the two other lenders' positions.

Debra Petrillo, a Patchogue attorney who represents homeowners in foreclosure, does not think any penalty will be big enough to pressure big banks, now that they've been rescued by taxpayer money. "I would have tied the bailout to the modification of home loans," she said.

As of May, 44,053 permanent loan modifications were given out under the program in the New York metro region, which covers Long Island and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to the latest federal data. A year earlier, the number was 19,294 modifications, reports show.