AMAT UK is a charity based in Medway and Kent, with over twenty-years of experience of providing supported accommodation in the homeless sector. Throughout this time, AMAT UK has always prided itself on developing our service to meet the needs of our service users, and to benefit and enrich the wider community.
In order to achieve this, we aim to employ staff who are passionate about supporting our mission:
To reduce and prevent homelessness by providing accommodation and re-building lives, through personalised support and collaboration with other partner organisations.
This means that whilst having experience in the role you are applying for is definitely an advantage, we provide a comprehensive training package and therefore welcome applications from those with transferable skills who are passionate about working in this in this sector – empowering homeless and vulnerable people to achieve sustainable independence, wellbeing and make positive changes in their lives.
This also means applicants can include service users who have made significant changes to their lives and can benefit others by using the experience they have gained whilst living at AMAT UK.
We have a wide range of departments and potential areas of work, from operational departments including our Front Office, Support, and Housing services teams, to back office departments including our Housing Benefit, Human Resources, and Finance teams.
All roles come with benefits including 33 days annual leave entitlement per year (increasing after two years’ service in increments, up to a maximum of 38 days per year), access to AMAT UK’s Employee Assistance Programme, and workplace pension scheme.
We believe that all AMAT UK staff need to have a good understanding of how the organisation works as a whole, so they can see where their role fits into that. To achieve this, all successful candidates will receive a complete induction which involves shadowing other departments to see how they work over the first week of their employment with us. New staff are also provided with an induction pack which includes a new staff induction handbook, relevant information on your staff benefits including our Employee Assistance Programme, Financial Wellbeing platform and Workplace Pension, as well as an AMAT folder, notepad and pen so you can jot down any questions, and make notes on your experiences during your induction!
AMAT UK aims to promote equal opportunities in all areas of the service it provides and all areas of its employment practices, and we welcome applications from all sections of the community.
If you are looking for a challenge and want to make a difference, we look forward to hearing from you!
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CURRENT VACANCIES
Housing Benefit Assistant
Job Type: Full-time (37.5 hours per week), Permanent
Salary: £20,417 per annum
We are currently looking to recruit a Housing Benefit Assistant to join our amazing team!
The hours for this position are 37.5 hours per week, with normal working times being 9.00am – 5.30pm, Monday – Friday in office. At AMAT we are focused on delivering the best service we can to our service users, and operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year service in order to achieve this. As such, you will be required to work bank holidays (including New Year’s Day on a rota basis) and flexibility is key to this role – ‘Be One Team’ is one of the fundamental expectations of staff.
The main purpose of the Housing Benefit Assistant role is to process Housing Benefit claims to the Local Authority and set up and maintain accurate service user accounts on Sage as well as maintain service user Licence Agreements. Your duties will include:
- To process New Housing Benefit claims to the Local Authority.
- To process Housing Benefits Rent decisions/Suspensions /overpayments/change in circumstances and any non-payments for bad debts.
- To book in support Induction Appointments with Service users.
- Compile Weekly Rent Shortfall accounts and attend shortfall meetings.
- Apply for Direct Payment Requests (DPR) from the DWP, where applicable.
- Create New Service User Accounts in Sage
- Updating of the HB Sage Invoice import sheet.
- Updating of all HB work sheets.
- To compile Sage account rent breakdowns for accurate balance checks.
- Signing, update & renewal of Licence agreements.
- Adjusting accounts for those that work.
- Up-dating of Service user Rent level changes.
- To maintain Tenant (AST) related account information as required.
Experience in an administrative role and working experience of using Microsoft packages (especially Excel) to a proficient level is essential to this role. Experience of using Sage 200 and up to date knowledge of the benefits system would be an advantage, however this is not essential as training can be provided.
The ideal candidate will have excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as being very organised with the ability to manage and prioritise own working tasks independently, and follow tasks through to completion. You must also be assertive when required, and be able to have difficult and at times challenging conversations, as well as being good with numbers.
To apply for this role, please click here
