Income Maintenance Caseworker II

About the Role

Employees in this class are responsible for determining and/or redetermining applicants'/clients' eligibility for one or two of the income maintenance programs in a County Department of Social Services and/or performing all functions in the AFDC-Foster Care and AFDC-EA Programs.

Work at this level reflects the performance of one or two functions within the eligibility process, such as interviewing the client, obtaining required information, completing initial applications, verifying the information obtained, determining eligibility, or completing scheduled program reviews. Employees explain program requirements and options and advise or refer clients to other program services as appropriate. Employees usually report to an Income Maintenance Supervisor.

Responsibilities

• Perform one or two functions such as intake, processing, or review in programs including Food Stamps, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Medicaid, or County Special Assistance.
• Obtain pertinent data concerning clients' family composition, financial, employment, and health status during the intake process.
• Process clients' applications through verification of all information obtained during intake.
• Conduct redetermination or review of clients' cases on a periodic basis to reverify eligibility for continued participation in the program.
• Determine clients' initial or continuing eligibility for programs based on the function(s) performed.
• Explain program requirements and options to clients with varying levels of understanding.
• Gather and verify information through direct contact with clients, their families, representatives, and collaterals.
• Inform clients of their rights and obligations as prescribed under program policies.

Requirements

• Good mathematical reasoning and computational skills.
• Ability to communicate with clients, applicants, and the public to obtain data and explain rules, policies, and procedures.
• Ability to understand the needs and problems of clients/applicants.
• Ability to learn the program area of assignment and all agency programs and services that could affect the client/applicant.

Qualifications

• Graduation from an accredited associate degree program in Human Services Technology, Social Services Associate, Paralegal Technology, Business Administration, Secretarial Science, or a closely related curriculum; or
• Graduation from high school and two years of paraprofessional, clerical, or other public contact experience, including negotiating, interviewing, explaining information, gathering and compiling data, analysis of data, and/or performance of mathematical or legal tasks, with at least one year of such experience in an income maintenance program; or
• Graduation from high school and three years of paraprofessional, clerical, or other public contact experience, including negotiating, interviewing, explaining information, gathering and compiling data, analysis of data, and/or performance of mathematical or legal tasks; or
• An equivalent combination of training and experience.

Work Environment

• Periodically subject to working with agitated clients, heavy workloads, and compressed time frames.
• Clients may at times be verbally abusive due to extreme situations or emotional problems, though physical harm is generally unlikely.

Difficulty of Work

Complexity: Work involves following guidelines from the Food Stamps, AFDC, Medicaid, and/or County Special Assistance Manuals, which are subject to frequent changes. Employees also use agency procedural guides and interpret policy directives from State regulatory agencies.

Accountability: Decisions are usually subject to second-party review and impact clients' well-being and the agency's error rate. Federal and State guidelines require regional quality reviews to ensure correct procedures.

Review: Work is reviewed periodically by a lead worker or supervisor through random evaluation of processed cases.