Residence Requirements:

CANDIDATES MUST HAVE BEEN LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY FOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE WRITTEN TEST AND MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY AT THE TIME OF APPOINTMENT. There is one anticipated vacancy at the Erie County  Department of Social Services.

Examples of Duties:

An Assistant Special Investigator-Spanish Speaking assists in the field of Social Services investigation; 

Reviews cases for falsification and investigates to verify written documents and determines if there is overpayment of funds;

Prepares and computes budgets of cases to determine if there is overpayment of funds;

Helps locate clients that have left the area and obtains agreements of repayments in fraud cases;

May interview and assist clients in mortgaging their real property, filing for Veteran's benefits and life insurance;

May investigate and determine assets and resources available to clients;

May maintain cases of clients who need Social Services to pay their bills from Social Security, S.S.I., or other programs;

May identify and apply for benefits of children in custody of department;

May interview relatives and investigate into available assets of individuals who apply for County burial and coordinate process with vendor;

Establishes accounts and arranges repayment schedules, monitors and receives payments;

Assists in preparing civil recovery and fraud packages for collection or prosecution;

Serves summonses and subpoenas, conducts Fire Investigations and two Party Check Investigations;

Searches indexes and files of the Clerks and Courts to determine and verify existence of property holdings and encumbrances;

Prepares deeds, mortgages and assignments as needed;

Conducts continuous investigations of resources for clients to detect any financial changes in status, as needed in estates or negligence claims, prepares assignment, as needed;

Contacts mortgagors to secure and verify mortgage data;

Performs investigations as required for all areas of Social Services;

May conduct field investigations as required;

May investigate and resolve interstate and incarceration matches of public benefit programs;

Prepares written reports of fraud findings.

Qualifications:

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:  Candidates must meet one of the following requirements on or before the date of the written test:

A.) Completion of 60 semester credit hours at a regionally accredited or New York State registered two (2) or four (4) year college or university and one (1) year of experience in a position involving the making of confidential inquiries and investigations in the field of insurance, financial resource, credit, public assistance eligibility, license tax, or personal investigations, or experience in interviewing and determining eligibility in public assistance programs; or:

B.) Graduation from high school or possession of a high school equivalency diploma and two (2) years of experience as per (A) above; or:

C.) An equivalent combination of training and experience as defined by the limits of (A) and (B).

SPECIAL LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT:
Must be able to converse fluently in Spanish as spoken in the Buffalo Metropolitan area.

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:
Eligibility for a New York State driver license at the time of application. Possession of the license and use of a private automobile required at time of appointment and throughout period of employment.
Applicants for designated positions in the Department of Social Services that may have access to federal tax information to perform his/her job duties shall be subject to a suitability background check investigation, including FBI fingerprinting, local law enforcement check, and verification check of citizenship/residency. A criminal record does not necessarily disqualify applicants from employment, rather an individualized determination will be made. The cost of the background check will be assumed by the Department of Social Services.

Notes:

1. Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting the experience requirements.

2. Your degree and/or college credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the New York State Education Department as following acceptable educational practices. A grade of "D" or better is necessary for a course to be credited as successfully completed. If your degree and/or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside of the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. You can write to this Department for a list of acceptable companies providing this service; you must pay the required evaluation fee.

Notice to Candidates: Transcripts will now be accepted by the Department of Personnel ONLY at time of application.
All subsequent transcripts must be submitted at time of interview.

A Guide for the Written Test for Investigators is available at the New York State website: https://www.cs.ny.gov/testing/testguides.cfm . Candidates not having access to a computer or the internet may request copy of the test guide from the municipal civil service office conducting this examination using the contact information found elsewhere on this announcement.

Subjects of Examination:

SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION: A written test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:

1. Evaluating information and evidence

These questions test for the ability to evaluate and draw conclusions from information and evidence. Each question consists of a set of facts and a conclusion based on the facts. The candidate must decide if the conclusion is warranted by the facts.

2. Preparing written material

These questions test for the ability to present information clearly and accurately, and to organize paragraphs logically and comprehensibly. For some questions, you will be given information in two or three sentences followed by four restatements of the information. You must then choose the best version. For other questions, you will be given paragraphs with their sentences out of order. You must then choose, from four suggestions, the best order for the sentences.

3. Understanding and interpreting written material

These questions test for the ability to understand and interpret written material. You will be presented with brief reading passages and will be asked questions about the passages. You should base your answers to the questions only on what is presented in the passages and not on what you may happen to know about the topic. 

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES: Unless otherwise noted, candidates are permitted to use quiet, hand held, solar or battery powered calculators. Devices with typewriter keyboards, "Spell Checkers", “Personal Digital Assistants", "Address Books", "Language Translators", "Dictionaries", or any similar devices are prohibited. You may not bring books or other reference materials.

**IMPORTANT APPLICATION FEE - READ CAREFULLY**

A $20.00 filing fee is required for this exam. The required fee must accompany your application. Send or bring check or money order made payable to Erie County Personnel Department and write the examination number(s) on your check or money order. Do not send or bring cash, as the County cannot be responsible for cash payment. As no refund will be made, you are urged to compare your qualifications carefully with the requirements for admission and file only for those examinations for which you are clearly qualified.