North Dakota Celebrates Eligibility Workers Week

This week in North Dakota is Eligibility Workers Week.

Sidney Schock, Economic Assistance Division Manager at Cass County Social Services, says eligibility workers are responsible to determine eligibility and issue benefits for public assistance programs.

Cass County has 66 eligibility workers, who determine eligibility for seven different programs throughout the county.

Schock says the workers play a vital role in the success of people in Cass County. 22,000 cases are handled by the eligibility workers in Cass County each month, he says.

The ways in which the eligibility workers work within the community makes them unique.

The caseloads are more than one-and-a-half times higher than other counties across the state, according to Schock.

He calls them “unsung heroes.”

Governor Doug Burgum, in his proclamation, says eligibility workers have held North Dakota’s error rate to one of the lowest in the nation, while providing excellent service in all areas of economic assistance programming.