Job title: Welfare Rights Worker

Salary: SO2 £38,510 - £40,444

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Location: Merrion House, 1st Floor West, 110 Merrion Centre, LS2 8BB with Hybrid Working in place

Are you passionate about helping people improve their financial wellbeing and access the support they are entitled to? Do you want a role where your knowledge and skills can make a real difference to the lives of Leeds residents?

As a Welfare Rights Worker, you will thrive on supporting people through challenging circumstances, helping them maximise their income and navigate complex welfare benefits systems. This is an opportunity to join a highly respected service dedicated to tackling poverty, reducing financial hardship and supporting some of the city's most vulnerable residents.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

About you

As a Welfare Rights Worker, you will bring to the role:

Significant experience of advising clients on welfare benefits and welfare rights issues.
An excellent working knowledge of welfare benefits legislation and entitlement rules.
Experience of supporting clients through mandatory reconsiderations, appeals and tribunal processes.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex information clearly and sensitively.
Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and maintain accurate case records.

About the role

As our next Welfare Rights Worker, you'll use your expertise to help residents secure the financial support they need, enabling them to make informed decisions and improve their quality of life.

The role is integral to our Welfare Rights Service, providing confidential, impartial and non-judgemental advice to customers across Leeds. You'll support clients through a range of delivery channels including appointments, telephone advice, outreach and home visits. You will also prepare appeal submissions, helping people challenge benefit decisions and access their full entitlements. Working closely with partner organisations, health services and council teams, you'll play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting financial inclusion across the city.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Please complete the online application form.

Read our guidance for further advice on completing your application.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact Diane Coombes, Section Manager. Call 0113 3788394 or email diane.coombes@leeds.gov.uk.

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visaroute before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job purpose

To provide a high quality, customer focused welfare rights service that supports residents to maximise their income, access their full entitlement to welfare benefits, and overcome financial hardship. The postholder will deliver accurate advice, advocacy and representation on complex welfare benefits matters, including appeals and tribunals, empowering individuals to make informed decisions and improving outcomes for some of the city's most vulnerable residents. Working collaboratively with partner agencies and council services, the role contributes to reducing poverty, promoting financial inclusion and supporting the Council’s wider ambitions for health, wellbeing and strong communities

Responsibilities

To provide a comprehensive welfare benefits and rights service that is confidential, impartial and non-judgmental
To offer information and advice on a whole range of welfare benefits and to have the ability to convey very complex benefit legislation in a simple way to clients
To provide advice and information via surgeries, telephone home, visits, email and web chat
To support clients with appeals, producing submissions and if appropriate representing at appeal hearings
To actively encourage benefit take-up
To assist with the production of publicity material including leaflets and posters etc
To deliver talks and awareness sessions in the daytime and evening as necessary
To develop positive working relationships with other Council departments and agencies to share information and make good referrals as appropriate
To manage own workload, and undertake clear case recording and follow up work from enquiries
To act as mentor and help to support new Welfare Rights Workers and Assistant Welfare Rights Workers
To work as part of a team, to support and assist colleagues, and to attend regular team meetings and training courses as required
To maintain a high level of confidentiality and to sign a declaration to that effect
To work flexibly to meet the needs of customers, and the ongoing development of the service
To promote and deliver positive solutions to achieving equal opportunities in all aspects of service delivery and human resources, focusing on equality of outcome
Any other duties considered commensurate with the post
To carry out duties in accordance with the Council’s Values

The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Qualifications Minimum Grade C/4 GCSE (or equivalent) in English and Mathematics.

Essential requirements Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.

Skills required

Ability to case record effectively
Ability to carry out complex calculations
Ability to deal sensitively with a wide range of enquiries
Ability to respect confidentiality
Ability to work to customer care standards
Ability to develop productive working relationships with health partners, Council departments and other agencies
Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, face to face, over the telephone.
Ability to deliver talks/presentations to groups
Excellent organisational skills
Ability to prioritise and organise own work
Ability to read and interpret very complex benefit legislation
Ability to manually calculate benefit entitlement and to provide better off calculations to enable customer to make informed financial decisions
Ability to work under pressure and multitask
Ability to remain calm when dealing with clients who become upset/aggressive

Knowledge required

An excellent understanding of welfare rights issues
An excellent in depth working knowledge of welfare benefits legislation
Good level of understanding of the public sector

Experience required

Experience of working in a customer services environment
Experience of working in a welfare rights field
Experience of doing appeal work
Experience of outreach work including home visits
Experience of directly advising clients on a one to one basis
Experience of working to tight deadlines, and with competing priorities
Experience of using a variety of computer packages

Essential behavioural and other characteristics

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council values and behaviours and codes of conduct
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Leeds Ambitions of health and wellbeing, inclusive growth, thriving strong communities, and a resilient sustainable city
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures
Carry out duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills
Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding equality and diversity of Leeds City Council
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters