Disability Benefits Officer- Benefits and Housing Needs Officer

Salary - Grade GBP £42,912 to £44, - SO2
Contract Type Fixed Term / Secondment
Contract Length 12 months
Contracted Hours Full Time - 36 hours per week
DBS Required Yes
Department Climate, Homes and Economy Service Benefits and Homeless Prevention Service
Closing date 28/05/2026

Hackney is one of the most dynamic and progressive local authorities in the UK. We are a resilient, vibrant, and creative borough in the heart of London, with strong, diverse communities and a powerful set of shared values.

Over the past twenty years, the Council has built up first class services, outstanding public infrastructure, and a reputation for excellence, innovation, and ambition.

Hackney Here To Help is an easily accessible, resident facing, multi disciplinary service that brings together benefits advice with assessment for a range of discretionary grants, in a delivery model that has data led, active community outreach at its heart.

One of our core goals is increasing residents' income by tackling benefits under claiming in the borough. The Income Maximisation Team, within which this role sits, is focussed on increasing income for some of the borough's most vulnerable residents, by ensuring that they claim and contest disability benefits. It is a highly skilled and successful team, generating over £1.5m in additional income over the past three years for residents.

In this role you will support disabled people (or households with a disabled person) to access a full range of welfare benefits, discretionary support, reductions and exemptions. You will lead on mandatory review and tribunal work.

Responsibilities

• Decide on applications to take through the review process, prepare documentation, support the individual resident and represent them at tribunal hearings.
• Support the wider Money Hub team by working collaboratively on cases, developing colleagues' skills and understanding of the support available for disabled people, people with long term illness, and people with caring responsibilities.
• Give feedback on likely eligibility on a case by case basis.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of welfare and disability benefits.
• Experience of drafting grounds for appeal, written submissions and tribunal representation.
• Experience of working within a close knit team and with case management software to record resident contact and outcomes (Here To Help uses Google based AppSheet).
• Comfortable working directly with residents, adopting a holistic, empathetic approach to understand the resident's full range of needs and respond as fully as possible.
• Strong organisational and time management ability to assess a high rate of incoming applications across several discretionary support schemes.
• Flexibility, independence and a problem solving attitude when working with residents and on different types of cases.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.