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Welfare Benefits Advisor

Employer
Home Group
Location
Reading, Berkshire
Salary
£20,000 - £29,999
Closing date
11 Jun 2021

View more

Function
Corporate Services, Finance
Seniority
Partner
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Part Time
Organisation Type
Charity

Job Details

DESCRIPTION/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Welfare Benefits Advisor

Location: Reading (covering Berkshire and North Hampshire)

Permanent Contract

Full Time (37.5 hpw)

Salary Circa £27,000 per annum depending on skills and experience

Plus, brilliant benefits

Empowering to live rewarding and happy lives. That’s when it hits home

We have a fabulous opportunity for you to join our awesome and growing team in this sparkly new role of Welfare Benefits Advisor known internally to us as Financial Inclusion Partner.

You will work alongside our regional team to support our customers across a large geographical area. You’ll support them to bring their arrears down and primarily get benefits such as Universal Credit into payment.

You’ll have experience of working with customers, who struggle to manage their finances and are at risk of homelessness due to their debt. It would be great if you have experience of using preventative and education-based methods to work with “at risk” households. You’ll be confident with creating debt management and budgeting plans, experience of arrears monitoring and collection processes. We want our customers to feel safe and secure in their home. We work closely with our colleagues to make sure that where our customers need support, that we help them to live their best lives!

You will work alongside Housing Managers to offer support to households with arrears. Ultimately, we want to make sure that our customers have the right support and information.  

What makes us No. 7 in the UK’s Best Super Large Great Places to Work, 6th Best Place in the UK for Great Places for Women to Work, 18th in the Stonewall Top 100 and Investors in People Gold Standard….? It’s our brilliant people and culture!

Customer Quote

“I can’t believe Home Group are helping people like this, it’s brilliant. Thank you so much.”

About our team

To us were not just a team we’re a ‘work family’. You will join a local team of 6 housing managers and 2 Community housing assistants. They have a wealth of experience and knowledge. In this role you will be supported by Julia, our Operations Manager, who loves holidays to Goa and walking her Border Collie -Murphy!

Our Financial Inclusion Team are a new team that started in January. There’s currently 14 in the team with more to join. We don’t just love to support our customers, we’re there for each other too! 

We all have different roles and personalities but complement each other like chocolate and orange. We’re all learning and developing the service, so now is a great time to join us and help to influence the way we work. Josie, is based in the East and recently returned to work as a part-time Financial Inclusion Partner after having her little boy. Josie is loving her new role and finds the team really supportive and knowledgeable.

You’ll work really closely with our local Housing Management Team, based in Reading. The team are super passionate about delivering on our Customer Promise and have lots of experience that they’re really keen to share with you.  

Where you’ll work

You’ll work across Berkshire and North Hampshire, with our customers with the greatest need. You could be providing support verbally over the telephone or you’ll get out and about providing your support across our main communities so there will be considerable travel, but don’t worry we’ll pay you for your mileage. We don’t want you to spend all your time in the car, so you will have control over your own diary to plan your day effectively. The great news is that you will have the flexibility of working either from home or in one of our local offices and we’ll give you the technology and kit to make that easy.

Working hours

It’s the team’s unwritten rule that you attend the important appointments in life, be it your child’s school play, your partner’s graduation, or to get your new fridge delivered. You can elect to fit these around your working day or use your flexi to take the time off.

Our focus is on getting the job done, not your working hours! We would expect your main hours to be worked Monday – Friday but the occasional evening and weekend work will be needed so that you can meet up with our customers who are at work themselves.

About you

You’ll be passionate about Customer Service, and an advocate on welfare rights. You’ll provide top notch advice and support to our customers to empower them towards financial independence. You’ll work closely within the Housing Management team and with both internal and external stakeholders, aiming to support customers to sustain their tenancies.

You’ll have a great understanding of welfare benefits and be up to date on recent reforms, as well as knowledge on the DWP and local authority processes. Also, you’ll be our go-to person on local and national charities, and funding options available. You’ll be a natural problem solver and be able to relate to people from all backgrounds and be passionate to build our customers confidence in their finances.

Here at Home Group we have invested heavily in our future and use current and up to date equipment. You’ll be issued with the latest kit, which could include a Surface Pro and mobile. So it's really important to us that you are technologically savvy (or at the very least not a technophobe!)

It’s important to us that you have worked with benefits before. It would also be great if you have experience in housing too. Don’t worry, we won’t drop you in the deep end, we’ll help to you support customers and to understand how things work at Home Group!

As this is a community role, you need to be able to drive, as well as being insured for business purposes. Don’t worry, we’ll pay you expenses to cover this use!

When you join, you’ll need to have a valid Enhanced Check under the Disclosure and Barring Service. The great news is that we will pay for that to be done if you don’t have a transferrable one.

Want to know more?

If you’re not reading this advert on our careers pages, press the APPLY NOW button to access lots of useful stuff! You can download the Financial Inclusion Partner Job Description, and find out more about Home Group. We’ve also got some short films that show you what it’s like to work here, and we know you’ll want to find out more about our award winning benefits and rewards package!

To apply

Don’t delay applying for this brilliant job, as we may close it early if we get lots of applications! Just upload your CV and if you have one, your covering letter (this will help us learn more about you!). If you need them, we’ve also got some great templates to help you.

You’re unique!

Home Group play a big part in tackling prejudice and discrimination, not just for our customers, but colleagues too! You can be yourself here, because we value everything that makes you unique. So, whatever your age, race, sexuality, disability, religion, or gender identity, we recognise and celebrate our differences. Together we make Home Group a great place to work!

During Covid

We’re continuing to deliver services for our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and our brilliant colleagues are at the very heart of making that happen. We’re doing things a little differently at the moment, so to keep everyone safe, we’ll engage with you digitally where possible. Check out our awesome video to find out more on how our colleagues have felt supported here during the outbreak.

#financialinclusion #benefits #welfarerights #jobsinReading #jobsinBerkshire #jobsinHampshire #housingjobs

Company

There’s never been a more exciting time to join us, as we build and sell over 10,000 new homes across the UK.  From affordable housing to our brilliant private sale brand Persona, we’re shaking up the new build market.  You’ll have the opportunity to work on everything from affordable homes to luxury apartments and build the career you want with us. 

As one of the UK’s largest developers of new homes and providers of houses for affordable rent.  We also provide long term integrated health and social care housing.  We don’t just build houses, we build homes and develop vibrant communities where people want to live. 

What keeps us busy?

We’re building homes, independence and aspirations and according to our trophy cabinet we’re pretty good at it! 

We’re winners of the 2018 UK Housing Awards Development Programme of the Year, Silver Best House at the What House Awards 2018, and RESI Landlord of the Year 2016.  We’re constantly challenging the status quo, delivering unparalleled schemes and ground-breaking products.  We pride ourselves on building happier, healthy homes, putting space and people before profits.

Oh and did we mentioned that we rank No. 27 in the UK’s Best Large Places to work, and 17th in Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2019?    

We’re growing

As we’re building new homes, we’re growing our team too so there are lots of opportunities for you to join us across the UK.  So whether you’re acquiring land, designing places, delivering schemes, selling homes or regenerating neighbourhoods.  You’ll be working alongside brilliant people to unlock bold opportunities, exciting new partnerships and collaborative projects across the UK. 

Join us

You can find out more about us and our current vacancies on our website at www.homegroup.org.uk/careers or on our Facebook and Linkedin pages.    

High-flying career, work life balance, brilliant benefits and a cherry on top!  There are so many reasons you’ll love working at Home Group.  https://youtu.be/624xZO1nXqY

 

Company info
Website
Location
2 Gosforth Park Way
Gosforth Business Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
NE12 8ET
GB

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