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Welfare Advisor, FREEDOM FROM TORTURE
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Contract: Full Time (35 hours per week), Permanent
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location: Manchester
Starting salary: £34,220 per annum
Closing date: 16.08.2026
Expected date of interviews: w/c 31.08.2026
Job ref: VA795
About The Role
We have an exciting opportunity for a welfare advisor based within our Legal Advice and Welfare Services (LAWS) team.
Do you want to use your extensive welfare benefits and/or asylum support experience to help torture survivors realise their welfare rights and entitlements?
Freedom from Torture is a human rights organisation that provides rehabilitation to survivors of torture. We are looking for someone who shares our passion for human rights to join our team in Manchester.
The Welfare Advisor works within the holistic rehabilitation model of Freedom from Torture and provides welfare advice and advocacy to our clients, forming part of a multi-disciplinary team. You will receive, process and manage welfare referrals, and act as a point of contact on welfare issues primarily for the Manchester centre, and to a smaller degree, the Scotland Centre.
This role requires careful and sensitive delivery of complex welfare information and advice, often to very vulnerable clients. You must have in-depth knowledge of the welfare rights and benefits available to asylum seekers and/or refugees. This may include completing Section 4 applications, or appealing negative benefits decisions on health or vulnerability grounds.
About You
The ideal candidate for the role will have the following:
- Experience of working within a similar role providing advocacy on a range of welfare issues to include housing, welfare benefits, and Asylum Support
- Extensive experience of working within the benefits system, including the application, assessment, and appeals procedures
- Experience working with refugees and asylum seekers and an understanding of the needs of this group and the associated support services and mechanisms available
- Experience of liaising with external agencies and government bodies to ensure that service users are given access to their available welfare rights and entitlements.
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At interview, you will need to demonstrate your ability to identify welfare needs and provide appropriate advice and recommendations. You will be given a case study to work through and you will be asked to share your analysis and plan with us.
Benefits
In return, we offer a competitive package, with a generous 30-day annual leave entitlement, and 6% employer pension contribution (minimum 1% employee contribution).
Freedom from Torture is committed to showing the salary for all advertised roles and not negotiating salaries for roles, in light of evidence that this contributes to structural inequality.
Our policy is that all appointments will be at the start of the salary range but successful candidates will have the opportunity to move up the scale over time. The progression up the salary range is reviewed on an annual basis and subject to affordability. For this role, the salary range is £34,220 - £39,696.
Application Process
To view the Job Description and Person Specification, please kindly find the attached file.
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Please note a CV and a cover letter addressing the job description and person specification of the role are mandatory to be considered for the position.
About Us
Freedom from Torture is dedicated to healing and protecting people who have survived torture. We provide therapies to improve physical and mental health, we medically document torture, and we provide legal and welfare help. We expose torture globally, we fight to hold torturing states to account and we campaign for fairer treatment of torture survivors in the UK.
We campaign for national and global change, using evidence from our services and survivor voices to protect and promote survivors' rights and hold torturing states to account. We are proud to play a significant role in the global anti-torture movement. Survivors, active and empowered, are at the centre of all of our work.
Freedom from Torture is committed to its responsibilities under safeguarding and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to a satisfactory DBS disclosure, as well as a need for full employment history and up-to-date employment references.
Freedom from Torture is an equal opportunity employer. People with lived experience of torture or asylum, from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications.
No agencies please.
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