Welfare Benefits Adviser

Welfare Benefits Adviser

Location: Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton (CABB)

Salary: £25,500 - £27,000 (dependent on experience)

Contract: Permanent

35 hours per week (full time, Monday to Friday). This role will be hybrid (70% in office or local community, 30% remote) following completion of required training.

Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton (CABB) is a leading provider of social welfare law advice and information, supporting thousands of clients every year. The Welfare Benefits team delivers professional advice to enable clients to understand entitlements, eligibility criteria, applications, and maximise income where possible.

About you

• Experience delivering advice (preferably welfare benefits)
• Excellent interpersonal skills to engage a diverse range of clients
• Organisational skills, able to adapt, prioritise deadlines and manage competing tasks in a fast paced environment
• A genuine passion for continual professional development
• Empathy, compassion, resilience and the ability to use trauma informed approaches to meet client needs

Key elements and tasks

Provide high quality tailored Welfare Benefits advice to clients through:

• Effective interviewing - using sensitive and questioning skills
• Offering comprehensive benefit checks, exploring and advising on eligibility
• Identifying emergency advice issues, advising/supporting on dealing with these including determining if food bank referrals are required
• Assessing if grants/one off support is available and advising on how to apply/support where possible
• Empowering clients to set their own priorities
• Identifying vulnerable clients who require additional support and acting on their behalf where possible
• Working closely with colleagues within the organisation and external partners to provide holistic advice and support to all clients
• Ensuring all work meets quality standards and funder requirements
• Maintaining detailed case records for continuity, information retrieval, statistical monitoring and report preparation (using national case management system Casebook)

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (EDI & B)

We believe inclusion is a social justice issue and particularly welcome applications from local individuals who are representative of the local communities we serve. Please complete the anonymised EDI monitoring form.

Benefits

• Flexible 35-hour working week (full time employees)
• Generous holiday entitlement - starting at 25 days per year, increasing to 30 days (in addition to bank holidays), pro rata for part time
• Additional day off for your birthday
• 5% employer contribution pension scheme
• Income protection insurance
• Access to 24/7 confidential telephone counselling and structured counselling support
• Access to online GP and telephone counselling services
• Enhanced family friendly leave and occupational sick leave
• Access to 'Blue Light Card' and other charity discount schemes