I was hired back in June to be a Disability Claims Specialist for Social Security Administration. And until July, I’ve been going to classes for 8 hours a day to be a Claims Specialist. Which is just about as exciting as you might think.
I’m learning about waiting requirements, how monthly income is calculated, what counts as an Auxialary, and the different rules for different types of auxiliaries, how to use the systems and reports. How to complete the reports. The different levels of appeal and so forth and so on. I assume that it will be a little more straightforward then the classes, since I doubt I will deal too much with things Federal Employee’s disability claims, whose salary prior to 1984 counts for medicare, but not for Disability payments (because Social Security wasn’t taken out for them before 1984).
In any case, it’s my foot in the door, but during the training, I can not use any of my leave, except for emergencies and the like.
The upside/downside is that everything is remote during Covid-19, which makes the classes harder (everything is done through powerpoint meetings on skype or reading) but at least I won’t have to deal with commute to the office for a while.