Housing Services Assistant

About the role:

Horsham District Council is looking for a Housing Services Assistant to provide administrative support to the Housing department.

As Housing Services Assistant you will be responsible for securing emergency placements for households that are eligible, homeless and in priority need when required through new and existing suppliers and associated administrative work. This role will involve emailing and confirming the period of stay of the household whilst in emergency housing including the start and the end of the placement. This will include contacting the bed and breakfast establishment to confirm that the placement has commenced.

Within this role, you will facilitate the creation and payment of invoices through the Council’s finance system for Housing and Community Services teams. This will include setting up new authorised suppliers in accordance with the Councils’ financial policies and procedures.

You will monitor and manage all rent accounts for both current and former tenants, update and maintain relevant spreadsheets and assist and complete housing benefit claims for households placed in emergency accommodation.

The post holder will need to be able to work from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

About you:

To succeed as a Housing Services Assistant, you will be customer focused with experience working with a range of stakeholders including internal and external parties namely vulnerable groups, organisations, landlords and agencies. You will also be a detail orientated individual with proven organisational and time management skills.

You will be a proficient IT user and have the ability to learn and use different packages and systems. Knowledge of the relevant benefit knowledge i.e. Housing Benefit, Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payments would be advantageous.

About us:

We have a friendly and supportive working environment and being a smaller Council, you can really get to know everybody.

We encourage and support our employees to have a healthy work life balance by offering 28 days’ (207.2 hours) annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata), and flexible/hybrid working options where applicable.

We offer a generous benefits package including an online platform offering discounts from online retailers and access to a car lease scheme. Staff are also eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), where the Council contributes circa 20% of pensionable salary.

To support employees’ professional development the Council provides reimbursement for professional subscriptions and a number of training opportunities, including extensive in-house learning resources, short courses, Apprenticeships, and qualifications such as Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Visit our Jobs and careers page to find out more about Working for Horsham District Council and Our employment commitments.

To apply:

If you would like to apply for the role, we highly recommend you show clearly within the ‘Experience Section’ of the application form how you meet the essential criteria detailed within the Role Profile when applying. If you do not make this clear, it is unlikely you will be shortlisted for interview.

Internal applicants, if you would like to apply for the role, please submit an expression of interest to HR@horsham.gov.uk explaining clearly how you meet the criteria and what you feel you can bring to the role.