Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open ONLY to current VBA Northeast District employees. Additionally, current/former Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) CTAP eligible employees. Select the one response that best represents your area of consideration eligibility for this position.

Major Duties:

• Serves as an Authorizer reviewing all required work of other Veterans Service Representatives when a second signature is required. Reviews and approves work for technical accuracy, clarity, thoroughness, and sensitivity of notification.
• Ensures that notices of decisions are prepared with an empathetic tone and are complete and phrased in terms that the claimant can understand.
• Makes administrative decisions and special determinations relating to qualifying military service, character of discharge, domestic relations contested claims, homicide, presumed death, line of duty, or willful misconduct, corpus of estate, and violations of U.S. Penal Code, related attorney fees, administrative error, and fraud.
• Authorizes administrative decisions made by other Veterans Service Representatives including character of discharge, line of duty, or willful misconduct, corpus of estate, and apportionment decisions.
• Explains a final decision if a veteran expresses an indication of dissatisfaction with a determination (filed in person, by telephone, or by mail).
• Uses electronic data processing (EDP) systems for inputting data related to claims adjudication, processing, monitoring, and correspondence preparation.
• Acts as an advocate for veterans and their beneficiaries in their dealings with other VA elements and organizations that affect their claims.
• Performs other duties, as assigned.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S Citizen to apply for this position.
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/18/2024.

Time-in-grade:

Applicants who are/were federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at GS-10. To support your claim of time in grade, you must submit your most recent appointment, promotion, or within grade increase SF-50. Some applicants may have to submit more than one SF-50 to demonstrate their eligibility. See the required documents section for more information.

The Office of Personnel Management's group coverage qualification standards, associated individual occupational requirements (IOR), and individual qualification standards covering white collar occupations in the Federal competitive service can be found here.

Specialized Experience: GS-11:

To qualify, applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-10) in the federal service. in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes but is not limited to experience that demonstrates competence in adjudicating and authorizing veterans' claims. Specialized experience is typically gained in positions that have involved experience in the development, examination, investigation, adjudication, and authorization of claims for disability compensation, disability pension, death compensation, death pension benefits, life insurance benefits, etc. Such experience is to be substantive and relevant and may have been gained in the practice of law or working with a Federal or state agency, insurance company, retirement, disability, or insurance program.

OR

Education:

A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree (such as an LL.M.) from an accredited college or university, or I have completed three full years (54 semester hours or 81 quarter hours) of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. This graduate degree or education demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the work for this position. Note: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

OR

Combination:

If you have some, but not all, of the graduate education described above AND less than one full year of the specialized experience described above, you may qualify by combining the amount of creditable education and experience that you do have. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at the GS-11 grade level. To calculate, first identify the education you have earned beyond your first two years of study as a percentage of a total of three years of study. Then identify the number of months of specialized experience you have as a percentage of 12 months. Add the two percentages. The total must equal at least 100 percent in order to be qualifying. For example, an applicant who has 45 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e., 50% of graduate education required beyond the two years which is required for GS-9) and who has 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e., 50% of the one year of specialized experience required) would meet 100% and thus be qualified for the position. Note: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience. Applicants who do not fully address the specialized experience needed for the position (as described above in the job announcement) in their resume or who do not possess the education to substitute for it will not be referred for consideration.After you have met the minimum qualifications, you will be rated on the following competencies based on your application for this position:

• REASONING- Identifies regulation, laws, principles, or relationships that explain facts, data or other information pertaining to claims processing; analyzes information presented for claims and makes correct inferences and conclusions regarding eligibility for multiple types of benefits.
• DECISION MAKING- Makes sound, well-informed and objective decisions concerning the claims review process; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action even in uncertain situations in order to assist customers and meet organizational goals.
• WRITTEN COMMUNICATION- Prepares written communication to customers and co-workers via email, letters reports, etc. Using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style; communicates information in a succinct and organized manner; provides information that is appropriate for the purpose and the intended audience.
• ORAL COMMUNICATION- Expresses information ( facts, decisions, ideas) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); listens to others; asks questions and gains or shares information related to the claims review process.
• COMPUTER SKILLS- Uses computers, software applications, databases, and automated systems to accomplish work. This includes tasks such as entering, sorting and retrieving data; analyzing data; researching information; monitoring work; and preparing correspondence and reports.

If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job-related information, which may include, but is not limited to responses to the knowledge, skills, and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or an interview.Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

Notice to Applicants: It is the policy of the Government not to deny employment simply because an individual has been unemployed or has had financial difficulties that have arisen through no fault of the individual. Information about an individual's employment experience will be used only to determine the person's qualifications and to assess his or her relative level of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Although an individual's personal conduct may be relevant in any employment decision, including conduct during periods of unemployment or evidence of dishonesty in handling financial matters, financial difficulty that has arisen through no fault of the individual will generally not itself be the basis of an unfavorable suitability or fitness determination.