Defence Business Services (DBS) - Welfare Assistant

at  Ministry of Defence

JOB DESCRIPTION

MoD Veterans Welfare Service (VWS), as part of Defence Business Services Armed Forces & Veterans Services, is committed to enhancing quality of life for veterans, their dependents and beneficiaries of Veterans UK pensions and compensation schemes. It also focuses on providing support that will enable seamless transition from Service to Civilian life, assisting bereaved families and responding to key life events that present welfare needs.
The primary purpose of the Welfare Advisor role is to understand and advise clients on the range of services available from the Veterans Welfare Service and other organisations, aiming to resolve client queries at the First Point of Contact. (FPOC). This includes War Disablement Pension and Armed Forces Compensation Schemes, DWP benefits and support available from ex-Service Charities and other Third Sector organisations.
As the FPOC, you will gather relevant information from clients in order to assess their needs - and provide advice and guidance in relation to the support available to them including available claims, allowances and entitlements.
Accurately record client conversations, case notes and outputs in line with internal requirements and quality standards.
Assist clients with form filling over the phone, where appropriate.
Signpost clients to appropriate Third Sector / 3rd Party support organisations
Seek relevant clarification from appropriate resources (e.g. colleagues or guidance documentation) where required, to provide client with appropriate and accurate responses in a timely manner.
Where required, refer cases to South Field Team Welfare Managers in line with VWS NI Centre Manager and workflow management guidelines.
Support Welfare Managers in collating information from relevant DWP and Veterans UK systems, where required.
Assist Welfare Managers in processing referrals for medical, financial and respite/remembrance applications and activities.
Escalate red flag cases to the VWS NI Centre Manager and highlight issues for immediate action for Welfare Managers, where appropriate.
Build and maintain cases on VWCS in line with all Veterans Services requirements and quality standards.
Manage calls to contribute to the provision of a consistent welfare service throughout the UK that operates as a single, seamless team.
Provide early and late phone cover (i.e. 08:30 – 17:00 Monday to Thursday and 08:30 – 16:30 Friday) in line with business requirements.
Collaborate with team members and contribute to the Welfare knowledge base by sharing information through the defined processes
Attend joint or accompanied client visits where required.

COMPLETING YOUR APPLICATION

Behaviour examples requires more than just information about what you did, it requires you to explain. There are many different approaches you could take to writing behaviours, such as the STAR, or the CAR method. As to which one you chose to use, it’s all down to your personal style of writing. Within the Civil Service, the most common approach is: The STAR method.
Using the STAR method, allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome. The job holder (and later the interviewer) will use this method to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information of what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit of something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.
Remember- if you are a school leaver or out of employment, and feel that you don’t have the experience to apply for this role then do this-
Make a list of your skills, strength and experience
Focus on your education/day-to-day life/extra-curricular activities such as team sports
Highlight anything that would help you perform in the job that you are applying for
For more information on applying for Civil Service jobs and completing your application please visit-
The STAR method , National Careers Service
Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Working for the Civil Service - Civil Service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.
Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.
Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.
Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on your Primary: Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing & Secondary: Behaviour - Working Together
In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.
At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

EXPERIENCE:

• CV
• Personal Statement. In no more than 250 words, please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlines in the job advert.

At interview you will be assessed against the above behaviours plus:-

• Working Together

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• Behaviour - Working Together
• Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:

• Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• Career - Personal Statement
• Career - Job History
• Career - Qualification Details
• Career - Previous Skills

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.
Application sifting to take place from early/mid February
Interviews are currently taking place face to face and will be conducted from mid/late February
A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk
MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.
As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
To assist with your application please find attached -
DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
(26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Operational Delivery