How we use cookies to help you It looks like you have JavaScript turned off. You need it to accept or reject cookies on our site. As it’s turned off, we’ll only use the essential cookies our website needs to work. This means some things, like videos, might not work for you. You can find out more about the cookies we use. How we use cookies to help you We use essential cookies to make our site work. We'd Also Like To Use Some Additional Cookies To see what help people need most, so we can make our site better help us campaign for changes that make things fairer for everyone let you watch videos on the site Find out more about how we use cookies and keep your data safe. Choose cookies You’ve accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time You’ve rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time Context Of Role West Oxfordshire District Council have identified a number of residents across the locality that may be living with a negative budget and struggling to meet their financial obligations. Reporting to a Projects Manager or Supervisor, the post holder will be working with households identified by West Oxfordshire District Council to ensure they maximise their income, minimise their expenditure and learn about financial capability tools such as budgeting and energy efficiency measures that will assist them to manage their finances as effectively as possible. Role Purpose Households living under a negative budget refer to families or individuals whose expenses exceed their income. In other words, they are spending more money than they earn, which often leads to the accumulation of debt or the depletion of savings. This situation is unsustainable in the long term and can create financial stress. The Aim Of This Project Is To Support Clients To Produce a Sustainable Household Budget By Focussing On a Number Of Potential Solutions, Including Increasing financial literacy: Making better decisions about managing money. Cutting expenses: Reducing essential expenditure such as energy costs by shopping around for better tariffs and reducing non-essential expenditure. Increasing income: Seeking additional sources of income, by checking benefit entitlements, and providing a range of other options as appropriate. Financial planning: Creating and maintaining a detailed budget, and being able to adjust a budget based on fluctuating income and expenses. Providing skills to save for emergencies and to help avoid falling into a negative budget in the future. Role profile Advice Completing benefit checks to maximise household income. Analyse individual or household income and expenditure to identify where savings could be made. Supporting individuals to make changes to their expenditure. Refer to other Citizens Advice services for additional support and advice where required. Maintain case records for the purposes of continuity of casework, information retrieval, statistical monitoring and report preparation. Ensure that all work conforms to the organisations Office Manual and the Advice Quality Standard and/or the specialist Quality Mark as appropriate. Work with and refer to other specialists both within the service and externally to ensure that the client receives the most appropriate specialist support for different issues where appropriate. Research & Campaigns Assist with research and campaigns work by providing information about clients’ circumstances. Monitor service provision to ensure that it reaches the widest possible client group. Alert other staff to local and national issues. Professional Development Keep up to date with legislation, case law, policies and procedures relating to specified area and undertaking appropriate training. Read relevant publications. Attend relevant internal and external meetings as agreed with the line manager. Prepare to attend supervision sessions/team meetings/management team meetings as appropriate. Assist with Service initiatives for the improvement of services. Administration Use IT for statistical recording, record keeping and document production. Attend internal and external meetings as agreed with the manager. Public relations Maintain good and proactive relationship with the partner agencies Liaise with statutory and non-statutory organisations and represent the Service on outside bodies as appropriate. Other Duties And Responsibilities Carry out any other tasks that may be within the scope of the post to ensure the effective delivery and development of the service. Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.