Housing Benefits Officer

Job Title: Housing Benefits Officer
Location: London Borough of Harrow, Forward Drive, Harrow, HA3 8NT
Employer: Pertemps Recruitment Partnership for London Borough of Harrow
Contract Type: Temporary (3 months ongoing)
Hours of Work: Monday - Friday 09:00 - 17:00
Working Arrangements: Hybrid working, Harrow Civic Hub, Forward Drive, Harrow Middlesex, HA3 8NT

Overview of the Role:
Pertemps is seeking a motivated and self-driven Housing Benefits Officer to join the expanding team at the London Borough of Harrow. This temporary role offers a competitive pay rate of up to £17.66 per hour, excellent training, career development support, and 21 days of holiday (excluding Bank Holidays).

Main Purpose of a Housing Benefits Officer:

• Evaluating and maintaining benefit claims for housing and council tax, ensuring they are processed accurately and within targeted timescales
• Assisting tenants with their benefit applications, providing advice on housing benefits, and handling inquiries and complaints
• Verifying and obtaining necessary documentation to support benefit claims, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations
• Administering and recovering overpayments, and managing rent arrears to prevent financial loss
• Working closely with other departments, external agencies, and third-party organizations to support vulnerable tenants and ensure effective service delivery
• Gathering statistical information, preparing reports, and attending administrative meetings

Requirements:

• Accuracy in processing claims and maintaining records
• Understanding of housing benefit regulations and compliance requirements is crucial
• Ability to work collaboratively with other departments and external agencies
• Recent experience in assessing all types of Housing Benefit (HB) claims for a Local Authority

About us:
For almost 60 years, Pertemps Recruitment Partnership have been the market leader in providing permanent and temporary staffing solutions and we are one of the most established players within the recruitment industry. The Sunday Times has listed us as one of the Best 100 Companies to work for 14 years running. We are not a big scary faceless company, quite the opposite: we strongly believe in the personal touch with everything we do. We are proud to be accredited 'investor in people' which is reflected across our business in length of service and career progression of our employees.

London Borough of Harrow is the 12th largest London borough and one of the most culturally diverse local authorities in the UK, making it a great place to live, work and visit. Located 10 miles from the city centre and just 13 minutes to Euston from Harrow & Wealdstone station there are great transport links via the Metropolitan Line, Watford DC Line and national rail service. It is easily accessible to the M1, M25 and A406.
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, any your data protection rights, can be found by visiting www.cifas.org.uk/fpn