State of Maryland

ASTD14

SKILLED SERVICE BARGAINING UNIT: F OVERTIME ELIGIBLE NCP

A Disability Claims Examiner I is the entry level of work in the Disability Determination Services office in the Maryland State Department of Education’s Division of Rehabilitation Services. Employees in this classification are learning to apply federal regulations and prepare determinations of eligibility for Social Security disability benefits. Employees in this classification do not supervise.

Employees in this classification receive close supervision from a Disability Claims Examiner Supervisor or other designated administrator.

Positions in this classification are evaluated using the Classification Job Evaluation Methodology. The use of this method involves comparing the assigned duties and responsibilities of a position to the job criteria found in the Nature of Work and Examples of Work sections of a class specification or a class description.

The Disability Claims Examiner I and Disability Claims Examiner II are differentiated on the basis of the degree of supervisory control exercised by the supervisor over these employees. The Disability Claims Examiner I learns to perform duties under close supervision, and the Disability Claims Examiner II performs the full range of duties under general supervision.

Learns to apply the policies, procedures, laws, regulations and directives governing the provision of disability determination services by participating in the Social Security Disability Examiner Basic Training program as well as on the job training;

Learns to review applications for disability determination programs and process Social Security initial claims;

Learns to utilize electronic software to process SSA’s initial disability claims;

Learns to establish a plan for the development and adjudication of individual claims for Social Security Disability Benefits and Supplemental Security Income Benefits;

Learns to evaluate medical and vocational evidence based on established federal criteria to determine degree and severity of a disability;

Learns to respond to inquiries from the public;

Learns to interpret medical evidence in consultation with medical and psychiatric staff; Learns to determine need for medical, psychological or vocational evaluations and to manage a budget for consultative examinations;

Learns to secure resource leads for evidence of impairment severity and conduct inquiries following established procedures;

Learns to determine the rationale for justifying the award or denial of Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income Benefits;

Learns to prepare determinations of eligibility for disability programs including evaluation of medical and vocational evidence based on established criteria;

Performs other related duties.

Education: Possession of a Bachelor’s Degree.

Experience: None.

Class descriptions broadly define 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 F, Social and Human Service Professionals 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 level 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 by 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.

May 21, 2024

Director, Division of Classification and Salary