Veterans Service Representative

Duties

The Veterans Service Representative (VSR) works as an employee in the Veterans Service Center (VSC) or Pension Management Center (PMC). The VSR explains benefit programs and entitlement criteria, conducts interviews, identifies issues, gathers relevant evidence, adjudicates claims, authorizes payments, and inputs data necessary to generate award and notification letters to Veterans, describing the decision and the reason for it. Specific duties are as follows:

• Serves as a primary contact for the veteran and his/her representative or advocate and the decision-maker for compensation or pension claims.
• Makes determinations as to eligibility for the type of benefit sought and fully analyzes, develops, and requests required evidence for certain claims requiring a rating decision.
• Decides the necessity for and type of examinations, reexamination or opinions to determine the existence of or to evaluate disabilities resulting from diseases or injuries.
• Develops comprehensive requests for these examinations/opinions to ensure appropriate evidence is received from which to adjudicate the claim.
• Prepares correspondence to members of Congress and special interest groups on case assignments and other "controlled" correspondence.
• Reviews all correspondence to private attorneys; acknowledges and revokes designations for private attorneys.
• Utilizes various 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.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, actual times to be determined.

Position Description #: 37300A

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met.  Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level.

• The grade progression for this position is GS-7/9/10.

Qualifications

To qualify for the Veterans Service Representative position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement (Friday, May 05, 2017). 

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:

GS-07 Level:

1. GS-07: Applicants must have one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-05). Specialized experience is defined as experience interpreting, regulations and applying laws required to explain, evaluate and recommend determinations of eligibility to claimant requests for services and benefits.  Examples of specialized experience include, but are not limited to:  1) The ability to request relevant medical or administrative evidence to make eligibility determinations 2) Experience analyzing medical evidence, benefit and/or legal evidence to identify and recognize required actions for claim development, and 3) Experience in explaining program benefit entitlements and requirements.