Housing Benefit jobs in Bolton

Housing and Wellbeing Officer

Reporting to the Housing and Wellbeing Manager, the Housing and Wellbeing Officer is responsible for working with customers to promote and maximise their independence, assisting them to move on to greater self-reliance within a customer focused environment and in line with the Independence and Wellbeing framework

What you’ll be doing

• To assist our customers to identify their strengths, development needs and risks to jointly develop a plan to build on or address these, including coaching and assisting customers to achieve greater independence;
• To assist customers to access other agencies and their services and the services within the wider community;
• To coach and assist customers to maintain their occupancy agreement and fully understand their responsibilities;
• To encourage feedback from customers, recording and responding to any complaints and compliments;
• To ensure safeguarding concerns are dealt with promptly and in line with guide lines and appropriate action is taken;
• To be responsible for tenancy management, including voids, reporting repairs / maintenance, allocations, lettings process, rents, aids and adaptations, ASB and challenging behaviour and breaches of occupancy agreements;
• To carry out any Health and Safety duties as directed by the Housing and Wellbeing Manager and adhere to Great Place’s Health and Safety procedures;

What you’ll need

• Relevant professional qualifications/ memberships (Institute of Customer Service qualification) OR willing to study towards
• Qualified to minimum level 2 in English and Maths

What we need from you

• A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing
• A passion to advocate on behalf of people and communities
• Empathy with our tenants and residents and willingness to deliver exceptional customer service;
• Experience of working in Housing Management is desirable.
• Experience of using a strength based approach to assist customers to achieve their goals is desirable.
• Experience of working in a customer focused environment, with a proven ability of delivering a high standard of customer service.
• The ability to develop and project a positive image of Great Places through personal, written and verbal skills.
• Experience of administration and recording procedures, with an in depth understanding of confidentiality.
• Ability to engage and to build relationships with partnering or potential partner agencies or organisations.
• Experience and understanding of safeguarding.
• Ability to complete tasks in an accurate and timely manner when working under pressure and maintain attention to detail.
• Effective liaison with colleagues and other stakeholders to give, or find, information to resolve problems.
• Experience of providing or signposting customers towards a responsive, timely, quality assured welfare benefit advice service that provides a holistic and integrated solution to support them solve their problem.
• Demonstrable coaching skills in promoting independence.
• Use of the relevant range of Microsoft Office applications
• Commitment to work in partnership with others for the benefit of Great Places
• Ability to work flexibly and when needed outside normal working hours to ensure service continuity

What we give you in return for your hard work and commitment

• Pension ¦DC Scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleague and Great Places)
• WPA ¦Healthcare auto enrolled at no contribution level with £1250 of savings available- option to increase & add on family members
• The Market Place ¦High street, restaurant & supermarket discounts, gym memberships, cycle to work, smart tech loans and much more
• Annual Leave ¦Start at 26 days annual leave, increasing up to 30 days within 5 years+ Bank Holidays
• Reward & Recognition ¦ You Count Rewards are individual reward’s for going ‘above & beyond’
• Help with transport ¦ We offer season ticket loans, an affordable way to purchase season tickets for public transport at discounted rates.
• Wage Stream ¦ You can access savings opportunities and early access to wages

At Great Places we believe the wellbeing of our colleagues is vital to enable them to deliver to great services, all your benefits can be used inside and outside of work.

“Great Places Housing Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults and expects all our colleagues to share this commitment. All successful applicant(s) will be subject to an enhanced criminal records background check (Child and Adult Workforce, Child Barred List). Further detail on our commitment to safeguarding children/young people & vulnerable adults can be found in the Great Places Housing Group Safeguarding Policy & Recruitment Policy on our website”.

Great Places Housing Group exists to improve the lives of the people living in our 25,000 homes across the North West and Yorkshire. We are much more than just a landlord, providing a wide-range of services and promoting partnership work to create vibrant, sustainable communities.

You can find details of our story, our vision and our values here.

At Great Places, we are committed to using inclusive hiring practices. By embracing diversity and difference, we enrich our teams with varied perspectives, drive, and innovation to create an environment in which everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from people of all identities, backgrounds, and cultures and are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone can be their authentic self; building a workforce that truly reflects the diverse communities we serve.

We want to create a recruitment process that allows you to perform at your best! Should you need any support or information throughout the process, please reach out to our recruitment team at recruitment@greatplaces.org.uk.