Financial Assessment Officer

Cambridge County Council; Huntingdon; Hybrid; GBP 29,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

4 weeks annual leave (salary sacrifice

Flexible bank holidays

Additional Voluntary Contributions

Training and development opportunities

Volunteer hours

Peer support groups

Car/Cycle to work schemes

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is offering a Financial Assessment Officer role within the Adult Social Care Financial Assessments Team. You will advise service users on means-tested assessments, manage a caseload and determine contributions in line with policies and legislation.

Experience in Welfare Benefits, Finance or Customer Service is welcome. We support flexible working, remote options, and a comprehensive wellbeing package.

Qualifications

• Experience in Welfare Benefits, Finance or Customer Service.
• Experience in Financial Assessments within Social Care.
• Understanding of means-tested financial assessments is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Provide advice and assistance to service users (or their representatives) to complete financial assessment forms and ensure understanding of the process.
• Manage your own financial assessment caseload and determine any financial contributions based on Policies and Legislation.
• Advise service users on general welfare benefit matters to maximise income.
• Work with the team to ensure accurate, timely processing and safeguarding of information.

Skills

Welfare Benefits

Finance

Customer Service

Job description

• Are you an enthusiastic, hardworking and flexible individual looking for an exciting opportunity to work in a people facing financial role?
• Do you have Welfare Benefits, Finance or Customer Service experience?
• Are you interested in or have previous experience in Financial Assessments within Social Care?
• We would love to hear from you as we have an exciting and fantastic opportunity for a Financial Assessment Officer role within the Adult Social Care Financial Assessments Team.

If you are wondering why you should join us, here's what some of our team members have to say:

I've worked for the Financial Assessment team for just under a year. Throughout that time, I have felt fully supported by my team leader and colleagues to progress. Training has been in bite-sized chunks with regular supervision to ensure my proficiency to move to the next step. Targets and goals are mutually agreed and clearly communicated. I feel thoroughly valued and supported at work whilst also being given the right balance of freedom to get on with the job.

I've worked for the Financial Assessment Team for over 3 years and have built some good relationships in the team during that time. I have enjoyed gaining the knowledge and understanding needed in this role and helping customers to understand the financial assessments and the processes involved. I have received good support from colleagues and managers, which is most appreciated when a case is particularly challenging, and I've enjoyed being able to offer my support to others too.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams on 13 and 14 October.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

What will you be doing?

Anyone in receipt of ASC may need to make a financial contribution based on their capital and income. This is calculated by a means tested financial assessment and this is the work the team undertake. You will provide advice and assistance to service users (or their representatives) to complete a financial assessment form and ensure they understand the process. You will manage your own financial assessment case load and determine any financial contribution they may need to make based on Policies and Legislation. You will also provide advice to service users on general welfare benefit matters: helping to maximise service user's income by identifying potential welfare benefit entitlement.

We are a dedicated team, with a supportive management team to encourage your learning and development.

If you feel you have the skills, attributes, and motivation to become part of our team, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

If you do not have the full requirement of the person specification, please do still apply as we offer training and a full induction programme, with regular supervision and yearly appraisal (please note that currently training is taking place both virtually and in an office environment when it is not possible to conduct remotely). There is also continued ongoing support from our friendly and supportive team, to allow you to succeed and thrive in your role.

The post is full time permanent working 37 hours per week and the salary scale is £28,598 - £31,022. The position will be based in Scott House Huntingdon, however we are currently working remotely and we encourage flexible ways of working with a real focus on your wellbeing.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams on 13 and 14 October.

About you

You will be articulate and able to communicate in a clear manner both verbally and in writing, in particular with at risk adults and their carers, in order to achieve desired outcomes. You will have a high level of both numeracy and literacy skills and experience of working in a role which requires accurate figure work.

You will have proven experience of delivering excellent customer service with an ability to work effectively both as an individual, and as part of a team

You will also possess strong time management and organisational skills and an ability to handle multiple tasks while working to deadlines and maintaining a high degree of accuracy and organisation

Strong computer literacy in particular MS Word, Outlook and Excel are essential as is the ability to travel to visit service users at their home from time to time.

Please use the supporting statement in your application to outline how your skills and experience match the essential criteria outlined in the Job Description/Person Specification attached to this advert.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers