Benefit Specialist
Full Time
Providence, RI 02908
$50,892 - $60,000 a year
Posted Just posted
Job description
The Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities is seeking to hire a Benefits Specialist to join an established team of Integrated Employment Specialists. The Benefits Specialist is responsible for counseling and educating Social Security Administration beneficiaries, individually or in groups, about how employment will affect their current benefits (including public and private health insurance as well as other federal, state, and/or local benefits received). Additionally, the Benefits Specialist will support day-to-day program operations to meet contracted requirements and program goals, including improving access to work incentive information and benefits counseling services. The Sherlock Center, located at Rhode Island College, is a grant-funded organization with a 30-year history of supporting the disability community. As Rhode Island’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), the Sherlock Center is focused on improving the health, education, social and economic well-being of people with disabilities, their families, and their communities.
Primary Purpose
The Benefits Specialist is responsible for counseling and educating Social Security Administration beneficiaries, individually or in groups, about how employment will affect their current benefits (including public and private health insurance as well as other federal, state, and/or local benefits received). Additionally, the Benefits Specialist will support day-to-day program operations to meet contracted requirements and program goals, including improving access to work incentive information and benefits counseling services
Essential Duties
- Assist with supervision and development of the program, including triaging and monitoring referrals, meeting benchmarks and quality assurance standards, coordinating information sessions, completing reports, and producing materials (e.g., factsheets, brochures, stories, social media posts, and website content).
- Provide individual benefits counseling and group information sessions that promote employment and to share accurate information about federal, state, and local benefits, including the Ticket to Work Program
- Gather eligible beneficiary information and develop individualized and comprehensive Benefits Summary and Analysis reports and Individual Work Incentive Follow-up Plans.
- Provide monitoring and assistance to beneficiaries to support the Work Incentive Follow-up Plan.
- Follow established protocols and procedures to ensure Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is kept confidential.
- Provide accurate and timely reporting of required case management and data for the program and Sherlock Center.
- Maintain effective relationships with Social Security Administration personnel (e.g., Area Work Incentive Coordinator, Work Incentive Liaisons, and local field office personnel) and state and community agencies (e.g., Employment Networks, vocational rehabilitation administrators and counselors, America’s Job Center, advocacy groups, Medicaid, PABSS, Community Partner Benefit Counselors).
- Keep current on local, state, national trends and best practices related to the field of work incentive information, benefit counseling and financial literacy.
- Maintain required certification credits.
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Executive Director, Paul V. Sherlock Center. Contribute to, coordinate, or facilitate related projects or activities that support the Sherlock Center, such as, but not limited to, research, models of service, information dissemination, training, and technical assistance
Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
- Knowledge of federal, state and local benefits programs, work incentives, and workforce initiatives and resources impacting employment of people with disabilities.
- Strong verbal and written communication, counseling, and evaluation skills.\
- Ability to research and analyze complex information and to communicate findings in plain language.
- Demonstrated computer skills (e.g., Office 365, Microsoft Office Suite, Zoom).
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team to achieve Sherlock Center and program goals.
- Ability to occasionally work in the evening and on weekends.
- Ability to travel to meetings and events off campus.
Education: Associate’s degree
Experience: 1+ years’ experience providing Work Incentives Planning and Benefits Counseling
Certification(s): Community Work Incentives Coordinator Certification from approved SSA program
Other: Ability to obtain Social Security Administration Suitability Clearance
Preferred Qualifications
Preferred qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree.
- 3+ years’ experience working as a Certified Work Incentives Benefits Specialist.
- 1+ years’ experience with program supervision or development.
- Lived or professional experience with disability.
- Bi-Lingual in Spanish.
- Knowledge of American Sign language.
- The employee is not exposed to known adverse environmental conditions other than those of working in an office/home/public settings.
- May be exposed to the following: adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow, extreme heat or cold.
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