Welfare Benefits & Debt Advice Triage Officer

No two weeks will be the same! You will be responsible for assessing all referrals into the Welfare Benefit & Debt Advice team. As the first point of contact into the team you will assist with low level benefit enquiries from customers and the income team and assign more complex cases to the Welfare Benefit & Debt Advice Officers. This role will also involve collaborative working with Welfare Benefit & Debt Advice Officers, colleagues in the Income and Housing Management Teams, DWP and Local Authority partners. There is an increasing demand for the YHG Welfare Benefit & Debt Advice Service in response to the cost of-living crisis and you will need to demonstrate resilience working in a demanding and challenging environment. Ideally, you will live within 25 miles of our Head Office in Warrington as you will need to be based within a reasonable travelling distance to attend meetings and training courses when needed. What will I be responsible for doing? First and foremost, you will co-ordinate the triaging of referrals into the welfare benefits team, supporting with low level benefit enquiries, supporting customers to address any urgent/emergency support and assigning cases to the Welfare Benefit & Debt Advice Officers further, specialist support. You will also support the team and YHG by assessing customers that are moving into YHG properties, ensuring affordability and income maximisation, providing guidance on any benefit issues/constraints that accepting a property offer may bring. One of the great things about this role is that it brings a real opportunity for you to support our customers with their financial and wider wellbeing and really make a difference to their lives!

We have an exciting opportunity for customer & results focused individual who can assist our customers to maximise their income and assist them to sustain their tenancies. You will have proven experience of delivering basic welfare benefits advice in a housing or public sector setting and an ability to work closely with others to deliver excellent customer service.,

• A good understanding of welfare benefits
• Ability to manage own workload
• Able to sensitively explore customer circumstances.
• Passionate about customer service and outcomes for customers
• A strong communicator with a high level of attention to detail and enjoy working as part of a fast- paced team
Ideally you will…
• have excellent customer care skills
• be well organised, self-motivated and a problem solver
• have strong communication and interpersonal skills
This role is really suited to someone who can understand our customers and their circumstances, someone who isn't afraid to ask questions, and through professional curiosity, can get to the underlying issues, someone who will make our customers feel supported and work with them to find solutions.

In return we offer £27,898 - £29,000 for a 35-hour week, and 25 days (pro-rata) annual leave (holidays also increase with time served) plus Bank Holidays, but our employee offering provides much more than just a competitive salary and holiday allowance. On top of this, we'll provide you with a great benefits package, including a contributory pension where we match whatever you choose to contribute (up to 4%), an advanced level Healthcare cash plan through Medicash, that doesn't just provide dental and optician cashback but also health and wellbeing benefits (such as 24/7 GP Access, money back from prescriptions and alternative therapy treatments) and an amazing discount scheme that gives you access to half price cinema tickets and a huge range of discounts with some of the biggest high street and online names.. For more of our great benefits, please review the benefits information sheet available by visiting the vacancy on our website - www.yourhousinggroup.co.uk/careers This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and therefore as part of the Group's pre-employment checks, successful applicants will be required to complete a satisfactory Enhanced DBS check.