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Benefits Officer x 2 – Housing

Posting date:	23 October 2024
Salary:	£18.53 per hour
Additional salary information:	per hour PAYE
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	21 November 2024
Location:	Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 1TP
Company:	Triumph Consultants Ltd
Job type:	Temporary
Job reference:	Walsall RQ1391498

Summary

What's involved with this role:

Temporary Benefits Officer x 2 – Housing

Job Ref: Walsall RQ1391498

Pay Rate: £18.53 per hour PAYE

Hours per week: 36 Monday – Friday, normal working hours

Role Length: This opening assignment is for 5 months

City: Walsall, West Midlands

Hybrid working

Basic DBS disclosure required for this role

The successful candidate will be dealing with customer and other stakeholder enquiries; giving advice, information and assistance in person, by phone, letter and / or other electronic methods.

Key Responsibilities:

Assist in the delivery of a professional, customer focussed high quality service to achieve the key targets.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of performance in the administration of council tax reduction / housing benefit / free school meals.
Have a detailed knowledge of entitlement conditions for benefits and best practice.
Receive, process benefit applications and obtain information in accordance with benefit legislation and council standards. Process reported changes to entitlement and notify claimants of the results of their applications. Determine and classify benefit overpayments on these cases.
Identify cases where there may be potential fraud and where suspected or identified refer to the Investigation Team.
Ensure that all relevant documentation is available to determine a claim.
Acquire a detailed knowledge of relevant legislation and best practice and to have broader understanding of procedures and systems including the implications of actions for subsidy purposes.
Use a variety of computer systems to view and update customer records. Produce standard / non-standard letters.
Have a thorough understanding of the relevant computer systems to identify, report on and action any inconsistencies and rejections.
Respond accurately to routine correspondence, including e-mails, using Plain English and within specified timescales.
Provide comprehensive advice and deal with detailed correspondence, telephone calls and personal visits, in accordance with the council’s customer care guidelines.



Qualifications:

An Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation Technician qualification is desirable but not essential.



Skills & Experience:

Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
Current knowledge / experience of using a benefit processing system.
Capable of dealing effectively with complex housing benefit, council tax benefit or Free School Meals (FSM) claims.
A significant practical application of the housing and council tax reduction or FSM legislation.
Experience of dealing with customers face to face on complex housing benefit and council tax reduction or FSM matters.
Evidence of dealing directly with and advising customers in a consistently professional and empathic manner.
Detailed and up to date working knowledge of benefits and/or local taxation legislation, regulations and working practices, and application in a customer focused environment. Ability to accurately explain and resolve issues for customers, colleagues and other stakeholders.
Broad awareness of welfare benefits.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).



Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.


Unless the DBS requirement stated above is for a Basic Disclosure, your DBS must be either through us or be accompanied by a subscription to the DBS updating service.

Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside – there is no need for a full address.

Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and exact job title.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF.

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms. We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.

Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days, please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles.











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Job Ref: Walsall RQ1391498


Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.

Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates.

We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed.

Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs.

Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.