Residence Requirements:

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 are seven anticipated vacancies and five vacancies at the Erie County Department of Social Services.

A promotion examination will be held at the same time as this examination. The list resulting from the promotion examination will be used first but appointments from this open competitive examination are anticipated. Use of the list may be suspended after it is one year old for any position which it is practical to fill through a new promotion examination.

Examples of Duties:

A Child Support Investigator interviews persons who have assigned support rights to or applied for child support services through County Social Services Department to obtain information necessary to pursue support; interviews absent parents to determine their ability to provide support and explain responsibilities; obtains and prepares agreements with absent parents to provide support in accordance with established guidelines; takes the appropriate legal action and prepares documents to be filed in court to establish support; interviews mothers of out-of-wedlock children and putative fathers, assists in preparing complaining witness statements, completes appropriate documents, and explains court procedures; takes appropriate legal action to enforce Orders of Support and collect arrearages; negotiates with respondents and prepares agreements to pay support and arrears; prepares legal documents to collect support, including judgments, Violation and Mollification petitions, and Wage Assignments; confers with consistent violators in order to ensure future compliance; attempts to secure voluntary resumption of payments and obtain payment toward existing arrears; assists client in filing petitions for enforcement of support orders and in locating absent parents when requested to do so; confers with legal representatives of the involved parties; registers cases with State and Federal agencies; prepares financial evaluations of respondents and petitioners; appears in court as expert witness; contacts and interviews parties and organizations thought to possess information on missing parents; makes field visits as required to obtain necessary information; investigates for concealed income, assets and pertinent information to be used as evidence in Court proceedings; prepares and serves subpoenas operates a personal computer, uses e-mail and other software related to job.

Qualifications:

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

A. Graduation from a regionally accredited or New York State registered four year college or university with a bachelor's degree and one year of experience in examining or evaluating claims for benefits in social programs operating under established criteria for eligibility, investigation and/or collection work; or:

B. Completion of 60 semester credit hours of college at a regionally accredited or New York State registered two or four  year college or university and three years of  experience in examining or evaluating claims for benefits in social programs operating under established  criteria for eligibility, investigation and/or collection work; or:

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

Notes:

NOTES:  1.) Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting full-time 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

Subjects of Examination:

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

1. Arithmetic reasoning related to child support

These questions test for the ability to solve an arithmetic problem presented in the context of child support operations. No knowledge of child support operations is needed. To determine the correct answer, you must decide what must be done to solve the problem, and then apply the appropriate arithmetic operation(s) in the appropriate order.

Knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division is required. The questions may also involve the use of percentages, decimals, and fractions.

2. Interviewing

These questions test for knowledge of the principles and practices employed in obtaining information from individuals through structured conversations. These questions require you to apply the principles, practices, and techniques of effective interviewing to hypothetical interviewing situations. Included are questions that present a problem arising from an interviewing situation, and you must choose the most appropriate course of action to take.

3. 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.

4. Public contact principles and practices

These questions test for knowledge of techniques used to interact with other people, to gather and present information, and to provide assistance, advice, and effective customer service in a courteous and professional manner. Questions will cover such topics as understanding and responding to people with diverse needs, perspectives, personalities, and levels of familiarity with agency operations, as well as acting in a way that both serves the public and reflects well on your agency.

5. Understanding and interpreting written material

These questions test how well you comprehend written material. You will be provided with brief reading selections and will be asked questions about the selections. All the information required to answer the questions will be presented in the selections; you will not be required to have any special knowledge relating to the subject areas of the selections. 

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.