What you can expect from us
- We offer a competitive salary of £37,250 per annum
- 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays - pro rata
- Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or through the holiday purchase scheme.
- Immediate entry to our Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%).
- A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies.
- Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family.
Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more.
- Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
- Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme.
- Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme.
- Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.
About the role
We’re looking for a passionate Money Advice Specialist with experience in welfare benefits, income maximisation, and financial support. As a Money Advice Specialist, you’ll use your expertise in benefits, income maximisation and debt prevention to help customers achieve financial stability. You’ll help customers improve their financial wellbeing while working closely with our Customer Accounts team to reduce debt and sustain tenancies.
The purpose of this role is to provide financial inclusion and welfare advice to customers to help maximise their income and support debt collection rates.
Suitable candidates will have a full UK driving licence and access to their own car, as mobile working will form part of this job.
Responsibilities
Referrals
- Manage financial inclusion referrals, including visiting customers at their homes and on site, recording and measuring the outcomes.
Benefits and Debt Advice
- Support customers to maximise their income by assisting with benefit applications, and help customers to complete mandatory reconsiderations and appeals when necessary.
Customer Advocacy
- Act as customer advocates, including supporting and representing customers at assessment and tribunal hearings.
Partnership Working
- Work alongside external partner organisations to ensure that customers have access to all available support and advice to bring about financially sustainable tenancies. Be the organisation and customer contact with DWP, supporting customers through their Universal Credit claim. Work closely with the neighbourhood team to ensure that local income, poverty and deprivation issues are addressed.
Campaigns
- Contribute to internal and external publicity and communication campaigns in our neighbourhoods relating to money advice. Assist by proactively participating in the organisation’s response to welfare reform.
Training
- Deliver training for colleagues in the Income team and the wider business on matters concerning financial inclusion as and when required
Skills, knowledge and experience required
Essential
- Knowledge and awareness of related housing regulations/law
- knowledge of welfare benefits
- A good understanding of the current welfare reform programme
- Experience of developing partnership working with support agencies, local authorities and community groups
- Good understanding of the social, economic and political context in the neighbourhoods in which we operate
- An understanding of the County Court rules and procedures, and relevant Government legislation, for dealing with debt
- IT skills – Microsoft office to intermediate level
Desirable
- Experience of working in a financial inclusion role
- Some experience of debt management procedures
Qualifications
Essential:
- Educated to GCSE standard or equivalent qualification/experience
Desirable:
- Relevant professional financial inclusion qualification, e.g. CIH
About Onward
Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.
We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.
In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.
We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.
At Onward Homes, your application will be reviewed by a human who carefully considers your CV, skills, knowledge and experience as part of our recruitment process. We do not use AI to make hiring decisions.
If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team on [email protected] and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.
