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Discretionary Grants and Awards Officer

Please Note: The application deadline for this job has now passed.

Our Values

It’s great to know that you are interested in working with us at Coventry City Council. As a prospective employee, it is important that everyone who works for us is committed to our One Coventry values and shares our commitment to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation. 

 

Our Values are:

About the team we are recruiting to

Coventry City Council’s Benefits Service is comprised of diverse, multi-talented teams who all have the same aim, to help the city’s most vulnerable residents.  

Our work is varied and covers the assessment and administration of schemes that provide financial help and support for those in need. 

Specifically, the teams are responsible for the delivery of: 

  • Housing Benefit and Discretionary Housing Payments which we administer on behalf of the Department for Works and Pensions. We also recover any overpaid housing benefit 

  • Council Tax Support which is a local scheme that helps residents with their Council Tax charges 

  • Free School Meals, by working closely with schools we aim to ensure every child who is entitled has a free school meal  

  • Community Support Grant Scheme which includes assistance in extreme emergency situations and can provide citizens help to resettle back into the community by providing essential furniture items.  

We embrace the ONE COVENTRY approach, working closely with our external partners and other Council teams, such as the Housing and Homeless teams and Children’s teams, ensuring we have a holistic approach to supporting our residents.

What is the job role?

We are looking for someone to join our team as a Discretionary Grants and Awards Officer.

In your role you will be supporting some of the most vulnerable benefit customers in hardship by administering all claims for Discretionary Grants and Awards. You will also be providing a front line service to all customers or their representatives by responding to their needs by providing a face to face service and also by telephone or in writing.

You will be providing advice and guidance to customers and representatives on the schemes we have available and processing applications for Community Support and Discretionary Housing payments.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for someone with previous experience of providing customer service within a benefits environment or an advisory setting. From this, you would have knowledge of Housing Benefits, relevant Welfare Benefits and Discretionary Payments Awards.

The ideal candidate will have and be able to demonstrate:

  • Excellent Customer Service Skills to deal with customers on a face-to-face basis and by telephone in accordance with the corporate standards
  • High level of communication skills, both verbal and written and the ability to establish rapport with customers and organisations.
  • Numeracy skills
  • IT skills sufficient to access, interpret and retrieve data
  • Ability to respond effectively to difficult situations 

Please see document attached below for the full job description and person specification.

When applying for this role you will be asked to write a personal statement, please include the following information in your application by providing examples of:

  • Awareness and knowledge of Discretionary Grants and awards
  • Ability to prioritise own workload, to work flexibly and respond to changing priorities
  • Experience of dealing with a wide range of people in order to handle and resolve enquiries
  • Ability to work under pressure and deliver team objectives
  • Your IT skills, to include Microsoft Office packages e.g. Word, Outlook and Excel

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'

Interview date(s):  14th December 2021

About Coventry

Coventry is a lively, multicultural city, which embraces old and new. Around the modern city centre there are traces of history everywhere – in the old city walls, the timber-framed buildings and the reconstructed medieval Spon Street. But Coventry has always had an eye on the future, and is now firmly focused on regenerating and re-inventing itself to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. With major developments and new projects taking place right across the city, Coventry City Council is the place to be!

There's a huge buzz about the city – Coventry ranks as the 8th best city to live, work and do business in the UK, and is the UK City of Culture 2021 ! We believe this will help put Coventry on the map for all the right reasons. You can feel the sense of local pride throughout the city as we build towards this momentous year. It also offers a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to those joining us to play their part in it.

We genuinely believe that Coventry City Council is a special place. You will be joining Coventry City Council during an exciting time to become part of a team that contribute to achieving our visions for the city. We have made our council a place where we look after our people, making sure you're happy in your work and given everything you need to succeed. We've created friendly, welcoming workplaces where everyone is working towards the same cause, providing the best possible services for the city of Coventry.

As a council with improvement at its heart, we’re committed to making life better for the people who live and work in Coventry. We’re equally concerned with the quality of life enjoyed by our people, so by joining us, you won’t just be helping the community, you’ll be helping yourself too.

Not only do you get to work alongside great people that are helping to improve services for our community we offer great benefits too! For your valued contribution we will provide a fantastic benefits package including;

  • Flexible working arrangements
  • Generous annual leave allowance starting at 27 days and rising to 32 days
  • Pay progression through multiple increments
  • Outstanding local government pension scheme
  • Learning & Development with access to certified courses.
  • Access to an award winning Occupational Health Team
  • Vibrant employee networks 

Coventry City Council

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