Welfare Rights Advice Worker– Employability services
Post: Welfare Rights Advice Worker
Service Area: Advice Services
Salary: £28,795.45 - £30,523.99 per annum per rata
Hours: 39 hours (full-time) and 30 hours (part-time) Fixed-term until 31 March 2028, with the potential to extend
Location: Main base location can be either the employee’s home or at an Edinburgh Office Base. The project will involve travel across various locations within Edinburgh
If home-based, you will be required to attend meetings in person..
Advice Worker – Employability services
Make a difference to the lives of people (including those with disabilities and support needs) as they look for or progress within work.
The Action Group seeks a highly organised, approachable and skilled person to join its accredited Advice Services. In this role you will maximise people’s income as they consider working or progressing in work. Through providing expert benefits advice, support and representation, you will ensure people have all of the money they are entitled to and can make informed choices about work.
You will provide this service for people receiving supported employability advice through our partner organisations (All in Edinburgh and Advance).
You need to be warm and approachable, have excellent verbal and written skills, organisation skills and an eye for detail. In return you will join a supportive and highly professional team of advisors and undertake rewarding work.
A good understanding of welfare benefits, or experience of working with people with support needs, is highly desirable.
Applicants will be digitally competent. They will show a good understanding of equality and diversity issues and a commitment to support people from marginalised groups.
To learn more about our recruitment process please click the link 🔗 - Our Recruitment Process
To support our commitment to a fair and inclusive recruitment process, we invite all candidates to optionally complete the
🔗 - Equal Opportunities Form for Applicants
🔗- Equality Statement | The Action Group
This is a regulated role and requires PVG Disclosure Scotland
As part of our recruitment process, candidates who have lived outside the UK for more than 12 months in the last 10 years will be required to provide a Criminal Convictions Certificate (or equivalent) from the relevant country or countries. Please note that the cost of obtaining this certificate will be the responsibility of the candidate.
If you need any support or adjustments during the application process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are committed to making this process as accessible as possible for everyone.
The Action Group Recruitment 📧 recruitment@actiongroup.org.uk 📞 0131 285 5207
About the role
Main Purpose
The Action Group is part of a supported employment consortium, alongside Forth Sector, Into-work and Enable. This post will contribute to the work of the consortium and, in particular, the Advance and All in Edinburgh projects- directly assisting people (including people with learning disabilities and other support needs) who are looking for work, have recently started in a job role, and those who are looking to move job or progress within work.
As an advice worker, your role will be to help people maximise their income and provide information on how their benefits and income will be affected by work-related changes, so that they can make informed decisions.
The post will require a flexible approach, which may include occasional evening or weekend working. The Action Group is accredited to the Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice Providers. You will work to set standards for delivering quality advice services.
The post holder will also proactively identify where individuals need wider support or advice and assist them to access agencies and services that can help.
Duties include:
• Direct welfare rights support, advice, case work and representation.
• Helping people to understand their benefit entitlements and meet their responsibilities.
• Provision of information, training and back-up advice to other professionals (particularly to employment advisers).
1. Advice, Advocacy and Representation
a. Provide information and advice to people (including disabled people, people with support needs, carers, and professionals who work with them). This advice is delivered by telephone, on digital platforms, by letter, email, and by personal appointments (both office-based and home visits).
b. Check benefit entitlement and provide individual support in pursuing relevant claims and appeals.
c. Carry out ‘Better Off’ calculations to help people understand how their financial situation will look if they take up employment.
d. Coach people to understand the steps they need to take and provide practical help where needed.
e. Assist people with a wide range of advice tasks - from application completion to detailed case-work and appeal representation.
f. Provide strategies and solutions to complex cases.
g. Organise own caseload and manage case recording within team standards.
h. Liaise with external agencies on behalf of people (where needed).
i. Act as a specialist resource for professional workers from a variety of agencies, in order to ensure that advice reaches as many people as possible.
j. Identify other issues that are impacting on people and signpost/refer (as appropriate) to other agencies and services that might benefit them.
k. Keep up-to-date with legislative changes.
2. Coaching and Training
a. Coach and mentor people to develop their knowledge and confidence in dealing with their benefits and benefits agencies.
b. Develop tools and systems that people can use to help them manage their benefit responsibilities.
c. Support people to liaise with agencies where needed.
d. Develop and deliver presentations, workshops and training sessions on advice issues, to a variety of audiences.
3. Monitoring and Reporting on activities of the service
a. Keep full, accurate records of clients who have been advised.
b. Monitor and report on activities of the project.
c. Compare outcomes with targets for the project and make necessary adjustments to the service to enhance it.
d. Identify and report on issues affecting people you are working with.
e. Attend progress meetings with project funders as required.
4. Promoting the Service and raising awareness of benefit entitlements
a. Develop strong networking and partnership working relationships with internal and external partners.
b. Assist with the production of written advice materials, articles for journals, publicity materials etc.
c. Promote the service through a variety of methods.
5. General Responsibilities
a. Undertake your own and general administrative duties such as updating Advice Pro casework system and chairing or taking minutes of team meetings.
b. Contribute to Team-wide initiatives such as take-up campaigns.
c. Assist in organisational tasks, such as maintenance of information resources.
d. Contribute to other tasks that may be required for the effective delivery of the service.
e. Adhere to both The Action Group’s health and safety policies at all times, as well as those of the organisation where you are primarily based.
f. Contribute to the team by communicating openly, fully and effectively with others at all times, taking a share of all team duties and supporting colleagues with casework issues.
g. Assess and manage the risks involved in lone working.
h. All advisers are expected to have a good understanding of equality and diversity issues and a commitment to supporting people from marginalised groups.
6. Contributing to a Quality Service
a. Be familiar with, and work within, all organisational and Team policies and procedures.
b. Participate in all necessary training.
c. Contribute to service user consultation efforts and assist in the production of explicit service standards, reviews, evaluations and annual reports on service improvement.
d. Encourage understanding of the complaints procedure amongst people using the service.
7. Other Duties
a. This job description is not intended to be exhaustive and the post holder may be required to perform other duties on occasion.
8. Confidentiality
a. High standards of confidentiality are required in relation to the roles, tasks and responsibilities described above.
The Action Group
We could use lots of fancy words to sum us up, but really it comes down to you, your family and us, working together to get the right support for you, that changes as you change and keeps putting you right at the centre of all that we do.
Our History The Action Group was set up in 1976 by a group of parents and carers of people who had learning disabilities and other support needs. They began by campaigning for better services for the people they cared about in the local area of Leith and Restalrig. This group, who all lived in the north east of Edinburgh, took the name Area 5 Action Group from the Social Work Department’s area in which they lived. Providing and Improving Learning Disability Care for Over 45 Years The Action Group was, and continues to be, a membership organisation with the twin aims of campaigning for, and providing, good community care services. In 1976, services and supports in the community were few and far between and large institutions and hospitals, like Gogarburn in Edinburgh, were the main service for children and adults. Locally, The Area 5 Action Group ran a high profile political and media campaign to get learning disability and support needs on the agenda. It also explored ways to develop service-provision By 1985, now called The North Edinburgh Action Group, membership had grown and service users came from all over Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian. By 1992, with development plans focussing across an even wider area, a further name change to The Action Group was made. Over the years the Action Group has been at the forefront of campaigning for and providing high quality community services.
The Vision That Families caring for a person and individuals who have support needs and/or Learning Disability encounter no barriers to their chosen lifestyle, are able to follow a path of choice and can enrich their opportunities. The Mission To Value, listen and involve people so that our every action is judged to be the best. The Values An ordinary life includes the 5 accomplishments which derives from the work of John O'Brien. These values are at the heart of the organisation. People accessing our services should have: Community presence - Relationships Competency - Respect - Choice
Our benefits
Looking to make a difference? Make a difference in your community and in people’s lives by becoming a support worker with us! Your goal will be to help people with additional support needs to gain or maintain their independence, and going about their lives in general, to support with work, health and wellbeing, or attending and participating in activities. HSF Health Plans for The Action Group Full-time & Part-time employees HSF Perkbox - HSF Assist Accredited Living Wage Employer Good annual leave entitlements Travel time payable where applicable Ongoing support, training and development opportunities Pension Blue Light Card
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On the job learning
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