Benefits Officer

About the role

North Northants Council is recruiting within our Revenue and Benefits team for multiple experienced Benefits Officers.

Do you want to make difference to support the local community?

The Revenues and Benefits Service is undergoing an exciting restructure, creating multiple opportunities to join the team as a Benefit Officer.

About the Role

As a Benefit Advisor you will be responsible for establishing eligibility for housing benefit and council tax support, ensuring correct entitlement is awarded and housing benefit subsidy.

We are seeking an enthusiastic, dedicated team player who is able to demonstrate a commitment to providing a high quality customer service, with patience and a flexible approach. You will deal with all aspects of Housing benefit and Council Tax Support, from advising the public on the benefits scheme to the decision making on benefit awards and payment of benefit.

The ability to work under pressure and often to tight deadlines will be an essential part of your daily routine as you will be dealing with sensitive and contentious situations in a busy environment.

What will you be doing?

As a Benefits Officer, you will be responsible for:

• Receiving applications for Housing Benefit and Council tax support and determine eligibility
• Request documentations to support claims
• Ensuring correct entitlement is awarded in accordance with legislation
• Processing claims accurately to support Housing Benefit subsidy requirements
• Maintain and keep accurate records
• Resolving and responding to customer queries and provide advice
• Proactively identifying false claims
• Issue Invoices
• Recovery of Housing Benefit Overpayments

Managing all aspects of casework from initial enquiry through to decision-making and award/payment of benefits

About you

You will require:

• English and Maths GCSE Grade C or above
• Good IT skills
• 2 years experience of assessing claims for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support
• Demonstrate and ability to understand government legisiation and the ability to keep up to date with changes
• Good Verbal and written communication
• Negotiation skills
• Work well under pressure and deadlines
• Good attention to detail
• Able to work on own initiative
• Able to use discretion and judgement
• Able to demonstrate awareness and understanding of equal opportunities

Our Benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Disability Confident Employer

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Our Employment and Disability Service provides bespoke support to individuals facing barriers to employment, helping them work towards their goals to start, stay and succeed in employment. For further information please click here The Employment and Disability Service (EADS) | North Northamptonshire Council

Armed Forces Community

The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)