ELIGIBILITY WORKER

City of New York•New York, NY

19h•$46,555 - $69,016•Onsite

About The Position

The HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) provides individualized services to New Yorkers living with HIV or AIDS, including intensive case management, rental assistance, housing, help applying for public benefits, vocational services, home care, referrals for mental health and substance use treatment, transportation assistance, and assistance with SSI or SSD applications and appeals. The agency is legally mandated to ensure that HASA clients are serviced promptly. HASA is recruiting 13 Eligibility Specialist-III employees to work as Eligibility Workers. The role involves assessing and recertifying applicants for HASA services, determining eligibility and benefit amounts, reviewing and recording client information, processing case actions and payments, and coordinating with clients and external parties. Applicants must be permanent in the Eligibility Specialist civil service title. Positions are listed at Coney Island, Garrison, Jerome, and HASA Admin locations. The scheduled hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Requirements

Applicants must be permanent in the Eligibility Specialist civil service title.
Meet one of the stated qualification pathways: completion of 30 semester credits at an accredited college or university; or a high school diploma or equivalent plus one year of full-time satisfactory experience in one or more specified areas; or a satisfactory combination of education and experience equivalent to those pathways.
For the experience pathway, qualifying experience may include interviewing and gathering information or preparing documentation for benefit eligibility recommendations; bookkeeping, teller, purchasing, sales, or customer-service duties; or working with social service agencies or legal representatives, or helping individuals navigate housing, social, financial, health, or application-system problems.
All candidates must have at least a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent.
Incidental opportunities to perform the listed qualifying experience duties do not count toward the minimum qualifications.

Responsibilities

Conduct initial assessment and recertification interviews, document required information, assess need and level of assistance, verify supporting documentation, record and copy documents, and schedule follow-up appointments when additional documentation is needed.
Determine initial and continuing eligibility for HASA services using automated systems, and refer consumers to eligibility verification, fingerprinting, and related systems and processes.
Prepare regular and bottom-line budgets to determine benefit amounts when household members have income relevant to the assessment for food stamps.
Review client data in HASA and state welfare databases, submitted documents, computer printouts, matches, and files; enter client-specific information and process clearances.
Write detailed case decisions and histories using required history sheets to support eligibility decisions for ongoing or one-shot deal cases.
Initiate benefit payments after validating budgets and ensure submissions through the EPFT system meet required rollout dates.
Prepare case TADS to reflect household-composition changes or correct inaccurate information.
Liaise with courts, marshals, landlords, and utility companies regarding client inquiries, dispossess proceedings, utility shutoffs, and funds owed to those parties.
Evaluate whether consumers meet requirements for special grants, including rehousing, furniture, clothing, and utility connection fees, and complete appropriate procedures for eligible consumers.
Maintain daily tickler files for required recertification forms, application data, returned forms with additional documentation, emergency checks, and WI 06 cards.
Prepare daily transmittals of case actions for supervisors' weekly reports.