I've been in the industry for 5 years and every company I've worked for has paid their processing assistants upwards of $12-15 an hour, sometimes with a bonus structure. I've also seen people with little to no experience get hired for these positions. It might be a good idea for you to get your resume out there for a paid processing assistant position.

To add to this, I started as a data entry clerk for a mortgage company. My best advice to you is to ensure that the people in management know who you are. Make sure that every second of downtime is useful and always underpromise/overdeliver. For example, if I thought a job would take me 2 hours, I would promise it in 4 and have it done well before then. Once you have a good enough repertoire with a manager, let them know that you feel like you could do more and ask them what more you can do to achieve those goals. I "climbed the ladder" so to speak and in a period of 5 years went from a data entry clerk to a compliance officer. I've also processed and done various forms of quality control reviews as as result of the advice I've given you. In the end, this may not work for everyone but I was very agressive with my ambitions and I played office politics well and neutrally and it has paid off well, as I expect it will continue to pay off well as my career advances.

Hope this helps!