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Financial Resilience Specialist

Salary £31,105.80 (pro rata) rising to £32,833.90 (pro rata) after successful probationary period of 6 months

Location Didsbury, Manchester

Permanent, Part Time

Jobshare - 17.5 hours per week

**Working 5 days on / 5 days off : Thurs, Fri / Mon - Wed followed by 5 working days off**

Reporting to the Financial Resilience Manager, the Financial Resilience Specialist will support the delivery of our Social Impact Strategy. The Financial Resilience Specialist will promote economic inclusion by building the capacity of front-line teams and providing support to customers experiencing financial hardship. The role will help our customers gain access to skills, services and financial products, enabling them to participate in modern society and make positive financial decisions. The postholder will also manage a caseload of customers struggling with debt and provide a debt counselling and adjustment service, helping them towards financial wellbeing and tenancy sustainment.

What you’ll be doing

Providing training and coaching to customer facing colleagues so that customers receive accurate information and advice in relation to welfare benefits, debt advice, and financial inclusion matters.

Supporting a caseload of customers with debt advice, advocating for customers with creditors and providing a debt adjustment service where necessary by calculating, negotiating, and acting to address problem debt – in accordance with Financial Conduct Authority regulations.

To ensure that partnerships are developed and monitored with other advice agencies or support services, so that tenants can be referred to, where appropriate, other services for debt, welfare and benefit advice.

To collate and produce a range of guidance and tools for customers to enable them to easily access information and updates around welfare benefits, and promoting the independent resolution of issues by customers in accordance with the Service Delivery Framework.

To engage with relevant professional networks to ensure Great Places understands the risks and challenges of future policy decisions in relation to the benefits system and debt advice sector.

Develop opportunities, initiatives, and projects with Community Investment Team colleagues that will seek to eradicate financial hardship in our communities.

Work with the Communications team to ensure that key messages relating to financial inclusion (including welfare benefits and debt advice) are communicated internally and externally. This is with the aim of ensuring customers are empowered to take steps to address financial hardship.

Deliver advice and support to customers through home visits and telephone appointments as required to provide appropriate support.

What you’ll need

Relevant professional qualifications / memberships (Institute of Money Advisers qualification) OR willingness to study towards;

Experience of working in the housing sector with a specialist knowledge of the welfare benefits system and debt / money advice services;

Demonstrable coaching skills, with experience of providing peer to peer support to build capacity amongst colleagues and enabling them to provide advice and guidance to customers about matters relating to financial inclusion.

Experience of administration and recording procedures, with an in depth understanding of confidentiality;

Experience of cross organisational working and engaging stakeholders;

Experience of working within a compliance framework;

Experience of working with people in the community who are vulnerable and / or in financial hardship;

Experience of community engagement and delivering community based projects to a diverse range of people, including vulnerable groups;

Use of full range of Microsoft Office.

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; this role is subject to a basic DBS check

What we need from you

You will be required to attend a number of face to face training sessions as well as virtual sessions and e-learning this part of your role is vital and of equal importance as the day to day aspects.

Empathy with our tenants and residents and willingness to deliver exceptional customer service;

An understanding of and commitment to delivering financial inclusion support (including the provision of debt advice) in a housing association setting, as well as a willingness to continuously learn and develop in this area;

Ability to organise and plan your own workload;

Ability to communicate confidently with strong interpersonal skills;

Flexible and positive approach to work and the ability to work autonomously.

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 + Bank Holidays

Lottery ¦ Monthly draw with 1st @ £250, 2nd @ £75 and 3rd @ £50

Savings Club ¦ You can put aside money each month for 11 months to help you save for that special something (pays out in Novembers salary

Sharing Greatness ¦ Our colleague incentive scheme where colleagues can earn £300 by helping the business achieve business targets.

Help with transport ¦ We offer season ticket loans, an affordable way to purchase season tickets for public transport at discounted rates .

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