JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title / Rights/Disability Adviser
Team / Legal Advice Services (LAS)
Reports to / Head of Legal Advice Services
Location / London office, Cambridge House
About the organisation / Working Families is the UK’s leading work life balance organisation. Our free Legal Helpline gives parents and carers advice on employment rights such as maternity and paternity leave and pay as well as helping them to negotiate the flexible hours they want. We are looking to recruit a rights adviser to help us assist families in work with benefit advice to maximise their incomes with emphasis on disability rights.
Terms and condition / Salary:£28,000 pro rata
Hours:21 hours per week
Annual Leave:30 days pa + bank holidays – pro rata hours worked
Please note: closing date isTuesday 9thJanuary 2018 (at noon)
Interviews will be held week commencingMonday 13thJanuary 2018and you will be informed as soon as possible after the closing date if you are successful.
Role Overview
A professional and enthusiastic adviser, prepared not to only to advise parents and carers on employment law and benefits, especially those relevant to parents or carers of disabled children, but also to help shape the law in this area. You will be expected to have a policy input and you will need to be keen communicator, able to increase our digital reach.
Key Accountabilities
Provide relevant and correct advice and coaching to parents and carers on in-work benefits and employment rights. Provide specific support to parents of disabled children.
Monitor and control communications, ensure funders’ requirements are met, provide feedback on and contribute to the improvement of database.
Keep abreast of changes in employment, financial or other relevant support for disadvantaged parents, identify policy and strategic issues for WF’s research and campaigning in area of expertise, contribute ideas and action the development of the service and represent WF at relevant stakeholders meetings.
Enrich WF’s Advice webpagesand other relevant publications (especially in specific area of expertise), ensure content remains relevant and uptodate.
Develop and improve tools and processes for engaging LAS’s service users (e.g. via regular newsletters, social media, other publications and events)
Provide outreach, training for parents and organisations and partnering of other organisations
Support (in particular by providing relevant statistics) and participate in fundraising activities for WF, including applicationand report. Assist with media requests as necessary.
Person Specification
Essential
  1. Advice
  • Expertise in and experience of advising on parental employment rights and/or in-work benefits (tax credits and Universal Credit and other financial help for people on low incomes).
  • Understanding of benefits and help available to families with disabled children, help with childcare costs through tax credits and Universal Credit as well as the ability to develop understanding of Childcare Vouchers and Tax Free Childcare
  • Computer literate
  • Knowledge of case law, and confidence in using textbooks and online publications and sources to support practice
  1. Policy and Communication
  • Ability to explain and write clearly and in an accessible manner about complex issues
  • Ability to respond to callers in an empathetic and professional manner
  • Ability to set priorities and manage own workload
  • Flexibility to adapt to working in a small team
  • Ability to identify own training and development needs and commitment to keeping up to date with all relevant changes in benefits and employment rights
  • Ability to manage and enrich a network of parents (via a facebook group and more generally social media).

Desirable
  • Thorough understanding of maternity, paternity and parental benefits and tax credits and workplace related maternity, paternity and parental rights and sex discrimination.
  • Experience of providing telephone advice and/or email advice to members of the public
  • Experience of providing training or second tier advice to advisers in benefits changes and/or parental rights
  • Experience of using case management database to record advice
  • Ability to identify policy issues arising from advice work
  • Experience of planning and writing advice publications for members of the public and reports
  • Knowledge of disability equality issues, in particular the social model of disability
  • Experience of providing better-off in work calculations for members of the public moving into employment
  • Experience of coaching parents of disabled children