State of Maryland

An Unemployment Insurance (UI) Claim Center Associate Trainee is the entry level of work in a Claim Center within the Division of Unemployment Insurance involving obtaining detailed, technical information from claimants in order to establish and process unemployment insurance claims, and to detect potentially disqualifying unemployment insurance issues. Employees in this classification do not supervise other positions.

Employees in this classification receive close supervision from a UI Claim Center Associate Supervisor I or other designated supervisory personnel.

Positions in this classification are evaluated by using the classification job evaluation methodology.  The use of this method involves comparing assigned duties and responsibilities of a position to the job criteria found in the Nature of Work and Examples of Work Sections of the class specification.

The UI Claim Center Associate Trainee, UI Claim Center Associate I and UI Claim Center Associate II are differentiated on the basis of the degree of supervisory control exercised by the supervisor over these employees.  The UI Claim Center Associate Trainee learns to perform duties under close supervision.  The UI Claim Center Associate I performs duties under close supervision at times and under general supervision at other times depending on the complexity of the specific duty being performed.  The UI Claim Center Associate II performs the full range of duties and responsibilities under general supervision.

Learns to interview claimants for unemployment insurance benefits, individually, by telephone and in group settings, to obtain and record demographic, wage and work information, including but not limited to severance and pension payments, medical documentation and disputed eligibility status and a variety of other issues;

Learns to analyze information to determine the appropriate claim type for unemployment insurance benefits, including but not limited to: initial Maryland claims, interstate and intrastate claims, additional claims, reopen claims, transitional original claims, combined wage claims, disputed wage claims, Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX) claims, Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) claims, The Federal Trade Readjustment Act (TRA) claims, extended benefit claims, and Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) claims;

Learns to verify eligibility and ensure prompt payment of benefits by completing required forms and enters data into the Maryland Automated Benefits System (MABS);

Learns to take initial claims by the evaluation of fact, to detect eligibility issues and to establish those issues by entering data into MABS;

Learns to detect, clear and self serve outstanding penalties and determine when to cancel a claim;

Learns to obtain work and wage information by interviewing claimants and employers and to obtain the documentation required to establish an earnings record necessary to prepare a disputed claim;

Learns to conduct Benefit Rights Interviews (BRI) to advise claimants of their rights and responsibilities under unemployment insurance law;

Learns to conduct Eligibility Review Interviews (ERI) to discuss continuing eligibility for benefits and re-employment assistance by interviewing claimants and examining their work search records for the purpose of evaluating work search efforts and developing a re-employment assistance plan;

Learns to process benefit appeal requests for claimants and employers and may be responsible for transmittal of appeal requests to the Appeals Division;

Learns to identify, investigate and resolve problems related to claims for unemployment insurance benefits using the MABS mainframe data system to ensure that individual claims for unemployment insurance benefits are kept up-to-date;

Learns to maintain electronic notepad and files on each unemployment insurance case in a complete manner according to established policy and procedures;

Learns to enter data requests for separation information returned from employers;

Learns to explain and informally interpret laws governing unemployment insurance to employers, claimants and the general public in a professional and courteous manner, within the meaning of the law, including inquiries in person, via telephone or by mail regarding such issues as general eligibility, appeal requests and procedures, severance and holiday pay, return to work confirmation and other issues;

Reads materials, attends meetings and training to enable the employees to abide by laws, rules, regulations, procedures, policies and ethical responsibilities promulgated by and governing the agency to ensure awareness and compliance and enhance levels of service;

May perform bilingual services;

Performs other related duties.

Ability to learn the Annotated Unemployment Insurance Law of Maryland, Title 8 and the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR), Title 9, Subtitle 32;

Ability to learn the information contained in policies, procedures, directives and instructions, pertaining to specific areas of claims taking;

Ability to learn eligibility criteria and procedures used to process UI claims;

Ability to learn interviewing skills;

Ability to use standard office equipment, such as personal computer, printer, photocopier, fax machine, calculator and Automated Call Distribution (ACD) telephone;

Ability to use tact and discretion when communicating, verbally and in writing, with internal and external customers;

Ability to elicit sufficient and pertinent information concerning the facts of a situation and to record this information in a clear, concise and logical form;

Ability to apply the reasoning contained in Unemployment Insurance laws, procedures, policies, directives and instructions, to arrive at valid conclusions;

Ability to deal with problems involving several variables within familiar context;

Ability to exercise sound and impartial judgment in analyzing claim information;

Ability to organize daily work plans to minimize backlog;

Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with Unemployment Insurance Claim Center Associates, Unemployment Claim Center Specialists, Unemployment Claim Center Supervisors and Administrators.

Education:   Graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate.

Experience: None.

Note: Candidates may substitute four years of general clerical experience on a year-for-year basis for the required education.

Class specifications are broad descriptions covering groups of positions used by various State departments and agencies. Position descriptions maintained by the using department or agency specifically address the essential job functions of each position.

This is a Skilled Service classification in the State Personnel Management System.  All positions in this classification are Skilled Service positions.  Some positions in Skilled Service classifications may be designated Special Appointment in accordance with the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 6-405, Annotated Code of Maryland.

This classification is assigned to Bargaining Unit B, Administrative, Technical and Clerical classes.  As provided by the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 3-102, special appointment, temporary, contractual, supervisory, managerial and confidential employees are excluded from collective bargaining.  Additionally, certain executive branch agencies are exempt from collective bargaining and all positions in those agencies are excluded from collective bargaining.

Employees in this classification are eligible to receive overtime compensation.  An employee who works more than the normal workweek is entitled to be compensated for that overtime, as provided by the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 8-305.

This classification is one level in a Non-Competitive Promotion (NCP) series.  NCP promotions are promotions by which employees may advance in grade and class level from trainee to full performance levels in a classification series.  In order to be non-competitively promoted to the next level in a NCP series, an employee must: 1) perform the main purpose of the class as defined in the Nature of Work section of the class specification; 2) receive the type of supervision defined in the class specification, and 3) meet the minimum qualifications of the classification.