---
title: "Eligibility Interviewer, Government Programs"
description: "Determine eligibility of persons applying to receive assistance from government programs and agency resources, such as welfare, unemployment benefits…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Eligibility Interviewer, Government Programs

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-4061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-4061.00

Determine eligibility of persons applying to receive assistance from government programs and agency resources, such as welfare, unemployment benefits, social security, and public housing.

Also advertised as: Benefits Program Tech (Benefits Program Technician); Business and Employment Specialist; Case Manager; Eligibility Examiner; Eligibility Specialist; Eligibility Worker; Program Eligibility Specialist; Social Welfare Examiner (SWEX).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $54,210 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $26.06/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $38,900 to $74,690, with the middle half between $45,910 and $63,610
- **Total US employment:** 154,800
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 11/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 154,800 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $38,900 |
| 25th | $45,910 |
| 50th (median) | $54,210 |
| 75th | $63,610 |
| 90th | $74,690 |
| Mean (average) | $56,090 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $74,080 | $67,406 | 640 |
| CT | $71,940 | $69,433 | 1,250 |
| MI | $66,830 | $69,458 | 5,060 |
| WA | $66,330 | $61,983 | 3,880 |
| MA | $64,750 | $61,225 | 1,700 |
| RI | $64,560 | $63,121 | 570 |
| CA | $63,520 | $57,370 | 30,960 |
| MN | $62,820 | $63,698 | 2,910 |
| AK | $61,840 | $60,415 | 400 |
| IL | $61,840 | $61,866 | 1,740 |
| IA | $61,340 | $69,894 | 1,040 |
| MT | $59,180 | $62,528 | 550 |
| PA | $59,070 | $60,540 | 10,280 |
| CO | $58,750 | $57,010 | 3,140 |
| VT | $58,530 | $59,750 | 310 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 166,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 168,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,700 jobs, or +1.0%. Slower than average: 1.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 25.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 24.2% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 23.6% |
| Some College Courses | 19.4% |
| Master's Degree | 7.2% |

## What the work involves

- Initiate procedures to grant, modify, deny, or terminate assistance, or refer applicants to other agencies for assistance.
- Interpret and explain information such as eligibility requirements, application details, payment methods, and applicants' legal rights.
- Check with employers or other references to verify answers and obtain further information.
- Answer applicants' questions about benefits and claim procedures.
- Interview benefits recipients at specified intervals to certify their eligibility for continuing benefits.
- Compile, record, and evaluate personal and financial data to verify completeness and accuracy, and to determine eligibility status.
- Interview and investigate applicants for public assistance to gather information pertinent to their applications.
- Keep records of assigned cases, and prepare required reports.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Social (S), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.32 |
| S — Social | 4.46 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.92 |
| I — Investigative | 2.45 |
| R — Realistic | 1.00 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 83.0 |
| ESTJ | 76.7 |
| ISFJ | 75.5 |
| ENFJ | 64.7 |
| ISTJ | 62.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Human Resources Assistant, Except Payroll and Timekeeping](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-assistant) — median $50,610
- [Human Resources Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-specialist) — median $75,940
- [Interviewer, Except Eligibility and Loan](https://nuecareer.com/careers/interviewer) — median $45,920
- [Compensation, Benefit, and Job Analysis Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-benefit-and-job-analysis-specialist) — median $78,210
- [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) — median $80,390
- [Insurance Claim and Policy Processing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-claim-and-policy-processing-clerk) — median $49,230
- [Compliance Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer) — median $80,730
- [Claims Adjuster, Examiner, and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/claims-adjuster-examiner-and-investigator) — median $78,000
- [Patient Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patient-representative) — median $50,290
- [School Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-social-worker) — median $59,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs