Revenues and Welfare Benefits Apprentice

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: Level 4 Apprenticeship £25,997

Contract Type: Fixed Term

Working hours per week: 36

Weeks per year: 52 weeks

Application Deadline: 7th September 2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): week commencing 15th September 2025

Reference: 1871

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

The London Borough of Waltham Forest has vacancies for 2 apprenticeship roles within the Benefits Service.
The primary focus of the Benefits Service is the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction.

The service also deals with discretionary housing payments, Local Welfare Assistance, the recovery of Housing Benefit overpayments, free school meals, financial assessments, sundry debt recovery and many of the discretionary schemes introduced by central government as a response to the Cost-of-Living Crisis.

The successful candidates will receive training on the job and complete an IRRV level 4 apprenticeship, with one study day per week.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• To ensure that all Housing Benefit and Council Tax support records are maintained and administered correctly and appropriate awards are made.
• Promote additional support available to customers where financial difficulties are apparent and maximising household income.
• Ensure that all necessary evidence and information is requested at the same time. Check correctness of decision letters and edit appropriately before they are sent.
• Determine cause(s) where an overpayment is identified and any persons from whom the overpayment is recoverable from.
• Appropriate recovery of overpayments and Sundry debts.
• Financial assessment for residents receiving care
• Deal with telephone and written enquiries from residents, their representatives and stakeholders.
• Helping to deliver the London Borough of Waltham Forest’s Mission Statement.

Qualifications and Requirements:

The successful candidate will have proven skills and experience in a customer facing environment, a basic understanding of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction, together with the ability to meet demanding performance targets.

• Demonstrate the ability to read and understand complex legislation and written procedures and policies which will be evidenced in part by a minimum of 5 Grade C/4 or above GCSE
• Have a qualification in math and English at Grade C/4 or above GCSE's or Level 2 Functional Skills in math and English
• Demonstrate the ability to organise and prioritise a challenging and varied workload and know when to approach colleagues for assistance.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the importance of the services provided by local authority including the ways in which these services are funded

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

Satisfactory DBS check;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Maria Hayzer, Team Manager at Maria.Hayzer@walthamforest.gov.uk and Agnes Adjei, Team Manager at Agnes.Adjei@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.