Welfare Benefits Advisor

Chelmsford and/ or Southend

Permanent

Full-Time

We are looking for a Welfare Benefits Advisor to provide housing benefit and other benefits advice to residents and employees, to maximise residents’ income and increase their ability to afford and sustain their tenancy.

What you'll be doing

• Provide specialist welfare benefit advice / debt counselling to customers and prospective tenants to maximise their income exploring charities and grant funding.

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with local authorities’ Housing Benefits and Government departments, where appropriate.

• To assist applicants with completion of Housing Benefit claims, universal credit and other welfare benefit applications and estimate their likely entitlement.

• Retain a working knowledge of the Housing Benefit, Universal Credit and other welfare benefits system to reflect updates / changes etc.

• Ensure detailed records are kept of communications with customers and compile monthly performance indicators.

What we are looking for

• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle for work purposes.

• Background in Housing Benefit or welfare rights and Universal Credit.

• Experienced in dealing face to face with vulnerable households, preferably with experience of visiting customers in their homes.

• Ability to work flexibly to manage conflicting priorities.

• Good negotiation, networking and influencing skills.

Please note the office expectancy of this role is as follows: This role can be based at either our Chelmsford or Southend Office. There will be a period of training based at our Chelmsford office for up to 6 weeks, before operating a hybrid working structure which will require office attendance at either location a minimum of 2 days a week.

Benefits

• The salary for this post will be £38,687 Per Annum.

• Learning and development opportunities

• Healthcare cash plan

• Robust employee reward and recognition programme

• Free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme

• Volunteering programme

• Competitive pension scheme

• 25 days annual leave per annum, plus bank holidays, 3 extra days between Christmas and New Year and 1 wellbeing day per annum.

• 37 hours per week – employees may be able to work flexibly by agreement with their line manager, taking account of business need. We operate a hybrid working policy at Delta Housing Ltd.

Please note: We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications or successfully appoint a candidate before the closing date. We encourage early applications to avoid disappointment.