Welfare Benefits Advisor (Customer Service)

Part-time flexible schedule (17.5 hours per week)
Fixed-term position to 31 March 2019

Our Client is on a mission!  They champion co-op and community-led housing where people design, develop, build or manage their homes themselves and they aim to make this a mainstream option for both rent and home ownership. To that end, they are investing in people and partnerships that can help them make this market fly.

They currently support over 40 co-ops that house more than 2,200 households by providing or overseeing a variety of housing management services and back office administration functions under instruction from their clients.  They are also a social landlord, providing housing management to their own residents living in nearly 1,000 properties.  

They need a passionate and driven person who is looking to work 17.5 hours per week to help them prepare for the roll-out of Universal Credit over the next year in the areas where the majority of their residents live. This compassionate and tenacious problem-solver will be equally comfortable working closely and directly with affected residents to help them prepare for the coming of the new benefit as independently analysing data and creating processes for how housing staff will manage Universal Credit cases after the big rollout ends. This will require excellent interpersonal skills, the ability to effectively communicate with varied audiences and strong data analysis skills, including creating tables and charts in Microsoft Excel. 

Their ideal team member will have knowledge of Universal Credit and be adept at accurately researching and filling in knowledge gaps, as needed. Managing your time effectively, you will be able to work independently but clearly evidence through the outcomes reporting you create how your time has benefitted our Client and their residents. Their company values are to be fair, reliable and act with integrity. These values drive everything they do, and they expect the same from you – meaning you consistently meet deadlines and targets and help others to meet theirs. 

Success in this role is ensuring arrears for UC recipients does not increase above the average arrears for the company. By the end of the contract, you will have trained all relevant staff on the clear, written procedures you have written for how to manage and track Universal Credit cases and how to support the households affected.

Apart from the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives vulnerable residents by helping them maintain their housing and increase opportunities even as they transition to Universal Credit, our Client offers a great working environment and a lovely team, a flexible schedule, a competitive salary and bonus scheme and generous benefits.  They take their employee engagement seriously and will invest in your development and training.

Please refer to Job Description when completing your application form. If you have questions about the role, please contact Christina Friedenthal, Operations Director to arrange a brief, informal chat.

Closing Date: Sunday 13th May

This is a Blue Octopus Recruitment Ltd vacancy who are operating as an employment agency. Once you have clicked to apply for this vacancy, we will then send you more information on the role including a copy of the application form via email.