Welfare Benefits Advisor

Age UK East London are recruiting a Welfare Benefits Advisor to join our growing information and advice team. We support thousands of people a year to maximise their income, challenge bad decisions, and ensure that they understand their rights and entitlements.

We support some of the most deprived communities in the UK, tackling poverty and health inequality while promoting independence and well-being. Working in well networked and integrated systems you will make a key contribution to improving the lives of adults, their carers and the wider community.

Job description

Job Purpose

• To provide Information, advice and support to clients enabling them to remain independent in their own homes.

• To work with the Advice Service to deliver and maintain excellent services to AQS standard.

• To provide home visits and office appointments, delivering advice via a variety of channels such as phone, video call and face to face.

• To work with clients to deliver holistic support that promotes wellbeing, independence that reduces health inequality and poverty.

Key Tasks

• To provide quality-assured independent advice and casework support to adults across East London.

• To maintain accurate case records in line with all relevant legislation and quality assurance benchmarks.

• To conduct welfare benefit calculations and advise accurately on entitlements.

• To complete applications for welfare benefits and grants etc.

• To support people to understand their rights and challenge decisions made against them such as welfare benefit appeals to first tier tribunal.

• To deliver a holistic, person-centred and strength-based service focussed on independence and wellbeing.

• To support service data input to support the service with evaluation and monitoring KPI’s.

• To keep up to date knowledge of welfare benefit, Housing and Social Care policy and legalisation.

• To support the service to be flexible and responsive to change and community need.

• To train and mentor volunteers.

General

• To meetregularlywith linemanagerforsupport,supervision and appraisal.

• To attend team and staff meetings, committee meetings, partnership, network forums and monitoring meetings as required.

• To undertake any other duties within the competence of the post holder as may be required fromtime to time forthe continued smooth running of Age UK East London.

• To undertake all training required to fulfil the role.

• To carry out the duties of the post in accordance with Age UK East London’s policies and procedures including: EDI, Health & Safety, Confidentiality, Complaints, GDPR, Safeguarding VulnerableAdults.

Functional Links

• The role reports to the Information & Advice Team Leader

• Close working with the Advocacy Service.

• Close working with GP’s, Outreach Venues, Hospital Ward Staff.

• Close working with the Advice Providers Network in Hackney.