Job Introduction
Are you self-motivated? A strong communicator with the ability to influence at all levels? Can you help our customers and staff respond to benefit changes? … Read on
The role of a Welfare Benefits Adviser is crucial in helping Notting Hill Genesis customers resolve benefits issues, maximise their income and improve their financial situation. This is an opportunity to use your knowledge and experience providing benefits advice to ensure we respond dynamically to the government changes being made to welfare benefits. Based within our Resident Support Programme and focusing on tenancy sustainment you'll be an excellent addition to our group of in-house experts on the benefit changes and your work will ultimately make a real difference to our customers’ lives. We are recruiting for an adviser who can work with our South and West London residents.
You’ll need to be customer focused and enthusiastic about providing quality advice to customers with benefits and welfare reform issues. Your role will also be to support housing officers to resolve complex and difficult benefit cases relating to mental health and vulnerability. Experience of providing advice, preferably in a social housing setting is desirable for this role. Your strong problem-solving skills will help get the best outcomes for our customers. The successful candidate will be eager to learn and keep up-to-date with developments and changes in legislation.
Collaboration is key in this department. You’ll have the ability to work well with a diverse team using effective communication skills and influencing a variety of stakeholders. This is needed as you’ll deal with a variety of complex information, translating these into straightforward written guidance and advice that instils confidence is therefore essential. Your success in this role will add value to our business and enhance our reputation as a pioneering housing association.
You will be based at either of our Sussex Place or Bruce Kenrick House offices.
Contract type: Temporary position - 12 months' FTC
Working hours: Full-time
Applications close: Friday 11th August
Assessment centre and interviews: week commencing 21st August
Main Responsibility
- Provide a comprehensive welfare benefits advice and advocacy service for customers; providing expert advice on all aspects of the welfare benefits system, supporting customers to challenge decisions and resolve complicated issues, supporting customers with benefit appeals, including preparation of submissions and representing customers at first tier tribunals.
- Manage a complex and demanding caseload, juggling competing priorities, ensuring cases are progressed and deadlines met. Work under own initiative to determine actions and advice needed for each case.
- Provide a responsive and inclusive service to customers, taking account of, and adapting to, individual needs.
- Support customers to maximise their income through access to charitable grants and funding and referrals to third parties.
- Maintain a good working knowledge of social security legislation and case law. Keep abreast of all national and local benefit changes; disseminate information on changes highlighting potential risks and impacts on customers and NHG.
- Design and deliver training on welfare benefits and financial inclusion.
- income maximisation advice to frontline teams to develop their knowledge and capacity to support residents.
- Work collaboratively with frontline teams to ensure that they make the best use of the welfare benefits and financial inclusion service and help to drive a focus on early intervention.
- Actively contribute ideas to the development and continuous improvement of the welfare benefits and financial inclusion service, using insight gained from working with residents and frontline staff.
- Undertake profiling analyses of our customers and identify any specialist benefit issues relating to particular groups, providing appropriate advice and assistance to staff on what steps to take to support certain groups.
- From time to time, initiate take up campaigns amongst residents in response to benefit changes and in line with profiling analysis.
- Represent NHG externally, developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and partners in key boroughs. Use these relationships to raise and resolve issues impacting NHG and our customers.
- Develop and maintain links with other welfare rights and financial inclusion advisers in order to share information and best practice.
General
- Ensure you follow the financial regulations, policies and procedures at NHG. Ensure that you follow relevant Health and Safety policies and related procedures, keeping up to date with changes and taking action to maintain personal health and safety and that of others.
The Ideal Candidate
Knowledge of current social housing legislation and good practice. We believe great service starts with great people, and we are committed to recruiting and developing passionate, enthusiastic, and talented individuals who can add value to our thriving organisation. You don’t need to have worked in housing before, you might just be starting out or you’ll be looking for a career change.
Mandatory:
- Substantive experience of providing welfare benefits advice (including a comprehensive and up to date knowledge of the statutory framework and the ability to identify implications of changes in legislation to welfare benefits).
- Experience of providing services to vulnerable adults and working with a diverse client group.
- Practical knowledge of financial inclusion sector, including experience of making successful grant applications.
- Previous experience within a housing organisation or advisory centre.
- Be able to produce written information or reports to management level, and excellent verbal communication and presentation skills.
- Strong negotiation skills.
- Good numeracy skills.
Effective IT skills including intermediate MS Office skills, and ability to use housing software packages and CRM systems.
What’s in it for me?
As part of our team, you will have access to professional qualifications and career opportunities across our Notting Hill Genesis business. You will also receive a generous holiday entitlement of 25 days, rising to 27 days after 2 years of service. You will also receive a simply health cash plan to help cover the costs of your everyday healthcare expenses (eg opticians, dentist, physio), generous pension scheme, and enhanced maternity pay and leave / shared parental leave options / paternity leave and access to our employee assistance programme for confidential support.
Benefits
In return we offer:
· Excellent annual leave allowance and flexible working opportunities (qualifying period may apply)
· Generous pension scheme
· Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay - we offer enhanced maternity and adoption pay in addition to statutory entitlements (qualifying period may apply)
· Employee assistance - free confidential advice and counselling services provided by independent specialist organisations
· Health cash plan
· Staff discounts - we give our staff access to discounts at hundreds of major retailers, gyms, restaurants, entertainment, days out, insurance and much more
· Interest free loans: season ticket loan, tenancy deposit loan and training loan
· Cycle to work scheme
· Life Assurance x 4 annual salary
Selection process
Step 1 If you are interested, please send your application now
Step 2 Successful candidates will be selected for an interview
Step 3 Successful candidates will be asked to do a work sample and interview
Please apply for this role with us online. If you are not able to apply online, please contact our HR team via jobs@nhg.org.uk to discuss your requirements.
About the Company
Notting Hill Genesis is now one of the largest housing associations in London and the south east. We own and manage more than 67,000 homes and employ around 1,500 staff. We provide homes across a range of tenures and are committed to continuing to deliver housing that is affordable to all. Our roots reach back to the 1960s when our legacy organisations were established by local people who shared a similar vision – to house west London’s working poor, providing them a home from which to build themselves and their families a secure future. For more information on what we do and what makes us different please visit: https://www.nhg.org.uk/about-us/
Our people
We value our people and both respect and celebrate their differences. We’re proud to say that our colleagues come from different backgrounds, with varied outlooks and are from all over the world. We encourage and are committed to diversity. We know that when people with varied experiences and unique points of view come together, it makes us a stronger organisation and more able to help the wide range of residents that we serve. We want all our colleagues to bring their full selves to work in a culture and environment based on respect and fairness, regardless of role, background or ability.
Our pledges
We are proud signatories of the G15 group’s diversity pledge to encourage more diversity in the boardroom and at senior level. The pledge on ethnic diversity commits NHG to reflect the ethnic diversity of the communities we work in at all levels and particularly at senior managerial, leadership and board levels.
We have under-representation of ethnically diverse colleagues at this level and are keen to fill this gap. We welcome applications from everyone. For this role, we especially encourage ethnically diverse candidates to join us and be part of an inclusive culture that celebrates diversity, equality of opportunity and provides a place for you to grow your career.
We are also a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident employer and have signed up to Harry’s Pledge. We actively monitor the diversity of our workforce and strive to show equal representation throughout all levels of the organisation.
To find out more about Diversity and inclusion at NHG, please visit our website.
