Voucher Payment Approver

City of New York • New York City, NY

12h • $61,656 - $70,904

About The Position

THE SELECTED CANDIDATE WILL BE OFFERED A SALARY BETWEEN $61,656 - $70,904.00 THIS POSITION IS ONLY OPEN TO CANDIDATES WHO ARE PERMANENT (NOT PROVISIONAL) IN THE CIVIL SERVICE TITLE OF PRINCIPAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSOCIATE. The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports. ACS manages community-based supports and foster care services and provides subsidized childcare vouchers. ACS child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment. In juvenile justice, ACS oversees detention, placement, and programs for youth in the community. The ACS Division of Financial Services (DFS) is responsible for supporting, planning, implementing, and monitoring the fiscal functions of the agency in accordance with City, State and Federal guidelines. The work of DFS includes managing the ACS budget; submission of monthly claims for revenue; processing of payments to provider agencies and vendors; monitoring the financial health of provider agencies through financial review and audits; maintenance of the ACS bank accounts; centralized oversight of ACS Child Welfare financial eligibility; and data maintenance for financial systems of record. The Child Care Voucher Payment Unit (VPU) within DFS PAYMENT SERVICES is responsible for processing approximately 9,800 childcare voucher payments each month for approximately 110,000 children from infancy to age 13 and special needs children up to age 18 or 19 if in a vocational school. VPU produces invoices for voucher payments made to approximately 8,600 providers that serve between one and 16 children and approximately 1,200 programs that serve between one and 1,400 children. Voucher payments are issued by a contracted payment agent, from invoices securely transmitted by VPU three times/week. Payments are issued by direct deposit or loaded onto a payment card. Customer service is provided for payment queries from childcare providers. VPU also executes levy judgments against voucher providers and is responsible for providing monthly and year-end payment history data to enable Budget to track trends and project voucher childcare costs. VPU also researches fraud requests and refers potential fraud cases to the proper authorities. This functional title is responsible for reviewing and approving invoices for payment resulting from automated attendance entry by Programs or paper entries from the few providers unable to automate. The resulting invoices are approved under general supervision, with some latitude for independent Initiative and decision making. Rejected invoices are returned to a payment processor within VPU for resolution.

Requirements

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and three years of satisfactory full-time progressively responsible clerical/administrative experience, one year of which must have been in an administrative capacity or supervising staff performing clerical/administrative work of more than moderate difficulty; or
• An associate degree or 60 semester credits from an accredited college and four years of satisfactory full-time progressively responsible clerical/administrative experience including one year of the administrative supervisory experience described in "1" above; or
• A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a State's department of education or a recognized accrediting organization and five years of satisfactory full-time progressively responsible clerical/administrative experience including one year of the administrative supervisory experience as described in "1" above;
• Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2", or "3" above. However, all candidates must possess the one year of administrative or supervisory experience as described in "1" above. Education above the high school level may be substituted for the general clerical/administrative experience (but not for the one year of administrative or supervisory experience described in "1" above) at a rate of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for 6 months of experience up to a maximum of 3½ years.

Responsibilities

• Review resulting invoices generated by daily time in/time out attendance entries in our automated system submitted by childcare providers after the service month. Rejected invoices are returned to the payment processor for correction or programmers are consulted to fix IT issues.
• Approve correct invoices for payment in the childcare database of record in preparation for secure transmission to payment agent for issue by direct deposit or payment card.
• Review invoices from attendance entered by VPU payment processors from paper attendance forms submitted by childcare providers who are unable to automate.
• Authorize childcare voucher payment after careful review of resulting invoice for batching invoices and securely transmitting to payment agent.
• Engage in UAT (user acceptance testing) of database updates for accuracy of programming.
• Engage in Special projects as needed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level