Senior Eligibility Worker bei Kings County, CA

About the Department

The Kings County Human Services Agency is seeking a dedicated and experienced professionals to serve as a Senior Eligibility Worker. This advanced-level position plays a vital role in supporting our community by managing complex, multiple-program caseloads and providing guidance to fellow staff. There are currently two vacancies. 

As a Senior Eligibility Worker, you may rotate between County offices in Avenal, Corcoran, Hanford, and Lemoore as assigned, offering the opportunity to work with diverse communities throughout Kings County. In this role, you will independently perform specialized technical assignments, review and verify eligibility determinations, and may serve in a lead capacity in the absence of a supervisor.

If you have the skills, experience, and passion to make a difference, we encourage you to apply! Future vacancies may also be filled from this recruitment, with the typical life of an eligible list being six months.

Receives direction from assigned supervisory and/or management personnel. May exercises technical and functional direction over and provide training to lower-level staff.   Exercises no direct supervision over staff.

The Senior Eligibility Worker is the advanced journey-level and/or lead worker classification in the Eligibility Worker series. In addition to performing the full scope of work, employees may provide technical and functional direction to assigned staff on an on-going, day-to-day basis, and perform the most difficult and complex assignments requiring the advanced knowledge of concepts in assigned area of responsibility, as well as County and regulatory standards, practices, policies, and procedures.  Responsibilities include performing diverse, specialized, and complex work involving significant accountability and decision-making responsibility.  Employees organize and oversee day-to-day activities and are responsible for providing support to an assigned supervisor/unit manager in a variety of areas.  Successful performance of the work requires an extensive background as well as the ability to coordinate subunit or unit work with that of other units and outside agencies.  The work involves a high-level of problem-solving requiring analysis of unique issues or problems without precedent and/or structure and formulating and presenting strategies and recommendations to management.

Position Duties

Management reserves the right to add, modify, change, or rescind the work assignments of different positions and to make reasonable accommodations so that qualified employees can perform the essential functions of the job.

• Provides technical and functional work direction to and participates in the more complex and difficult work of assigned staff responsible for assessing eligibility for various public assistance, medical, and/or housing programs, requiring the interpretation, understanding, and appropriate application of department policies and procedures and all aid program rules and regulations. 
• Provides consultation and lead direction to, and reviews the work of, lower-level staff; organizes and assigns work, sets priorities, and follows up to ensure work is completed according to program and County policies, procedures, and timeframes. 
• Trains employees in work principles, practices, methods, policies, procedures, and applicable federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations.
• Conducts formal and/or informal audits of case actions and eligibility determinations processed by eligibility staff; ensures the appropriate application of all aid program rules, regulations, and processing timeframes, and compliance with County and department policies and procedure.  
• Schedules appointments and conducts interactive, fact-gathering interviews; interprets and explains program rules and regulations governing eligibility, grants, processing timeframes, methods of payment, and legal rights and responsibilities to applicants and recipients. Conducts such interviews in the County welfare office, satellite offices, hospitals, participants homes, and other locations.
• Serves as subject matter expert and escalation point on eligibility programs’ policies, processes, and procedures for designated staff.  
• Identifies discrepancies in information reported by clients and/or actions taken by eligibility staff; secures documentation, records, and confirmation/verification from case files and other entities; evaluates cases for potential fraud and/or worker errors; reports to supervisor or investigations staff as required.  
• Prepares a variety of correspondence, periodic and special reports, including case audit findings, error trends, and recommendations for improvement for supervisory review. 
• Requests, records, reviews, and evaluates demographic, financial, and asset verification obtained from applicants and recipients and outside sources; enters and processes data into automated system(s) to determine/review initial/ongoing eligibility and grant entitlements within established timeframes; reviews and ensures the accuracy of the eligibility results, including eligible household members, budgets, and entitlements; identifies any errors in eligibility/grants and troubleshoots and modifies entries to ensure accurate eligibility determinations.        
• Processes assigned tasks and case actions, and/or maintains a complex and/or confidential client caseload; ensures appropriate action is taken on reported information/changes in circumstances, voluntary and mandated intermittent and annual reporting, and requests for additional and/or modified programs/services according to program rules and regulations, and timeframes for processing.  
• Provides courteous customer service, and accurate information related to department programs/services, eligibility, community resources, and other related requests.   
• Coordinates with internal and external agencies to communicate, receive, and verify information, including verification of income/assets, household demographics, time on aid, and inter-county transfers. 
• Attends meetings, conferences, workshops, and training sessions; reviews publications and related material to become and remain current on programs, regulations, policies, procedures, and new developments related to all eligibility programs. 
• Maintains accurate and detailed records, files, and notes related to case actions and client interactions; updates information, researches discrepancies, and performs data entry; maintains confidential client documentation. 
• Provides training to less experienced staff and volunteers as assigned.
• Performs other related duties as assigned. 

When assigned to housing programs:

• Performs outreach; seeks out housing opportunities by phone, internet, and in person to develop relationships with landlords and local agencies to grow and support housing resource options.
• Serves as liaison between landlords and case managers and is primary contact for landlords; communicates with landlords to facilitate rental agreements, negotiate rental amounts and property expenses, and address issues such as missing payments, damage, and evictions; issues approved payments and incentives to landlords and vendors including unpaid rent.
• Conducts property walkthroughs and facilitates improvements to ensure habitability; reviews and ensures accuracy of lease agreements and needs related to rent, rules, security deposit, and other items.
• Supports the resolution of client barriers to housing including evictions, felonies, credit score, collections status, household size, and rental history.

Minimum Qualifications

Any combination of training and experience that would provide the required knowledge, skills, and abilities is qualifying.   A typical way to obtain the required qualifications would be:

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Education:

Experience:

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS

Licenses:

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Qualify for security clearance through a background investigation and fingerprint check; certain positions in this classification may be designated as bilingual fluency in a foreign language. Positions in this classification are required to rotate assignments and are required to rotate between the agency’s central location in Hanford and outlying sites, as assigned and other locations.

Other Qualifications