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

Essential

Skills, knowledge and experience required

• 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 HumanResourcesTeam@onward.co.uk and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.