Senior Welfare Benefits Officer (2 posts)

Salary details: £ - £

Senior Welfare Benefits Officer

(Training and Policy Team)

 Post 1: Full-Time (37 hours) Fixed until 31 March 2028

Post 2: Part-Time (18.5 hours) Permanent

Grade 10: £35,442 - £38,730 (pro rata)

Location:  Parkwood, Alfreton (with some working from home available)

Closing date: Sunday 13 September 2026        

Provisional interview date: Tuesday 29 September 2026

Job reference: JOB/26/02470

Derbyshire County Council's Welfare Rights Service helps Derbyshire residents maximise their income, access the benefits they are entitled to, and receive expert advice and representation when they need it most. In 2025/26, the service supported more than 20,000 Derbyshire residents with benefit enquiries, providing information, advice, casework and appeal representation.  

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Training and Policy Team as a Senior Welfare Benefits Officer. This is a specialist role within a highly regarded countywide service that combines expert welfare rights practice with training, service development, and influencing policy.

The Training and Policy Team plays a vital role in strengthening welfare benefits knowledge across Derbyshire. The team develops and delivers training to internal colleagues and external organisations, including community and voluntary sector partners. It also contributes to consultation responses, research, service development, and policy work, helping to ensure that advice remains accurate, responsive, and informed by legislative and national developments.

As a Senior Welfare Benefits Officer, you will play a leading role in developing knowledge, skills, and confidence across the Welfare Rights Service and among partner organisations. You will design and deliver training programmes, presentations, and learning resources for a range of audiences, from experienced advisers to professionals with little prior knowledge of welfare benefits. The ability to communicate complex legislation in a clear, engaging and practical way will be central to the role.

Alongside training responsibilities, you will maintain a complex caseload and continue to use your welfare rights expertise in practice. You will provide specialist advice, advocacy, and representation, including preparation for Social Security Tribunals and, where appropriate, Upper Tribunal work. Maintaining direct involvement in frontline casework ensures that training and policy activity remains grounded in real-world experience and emerging issues affecting Derbyshire residents.

The role also offers opportunities to contribute to wider service development. You will help identify emerging policy issues, interpret changes to social security legislation and case law, support consultation responses, undertake research, and develop resources that improve practice across the service. As a senior practitioner, you will mentor colleagues, share specialist knowledge, and contribute to maintaining high standards of advice and representation.

We are looking for someone with substantial welfare rights experience, excellent communication skills, and a strong understanding of social security legislation. You will have experience of delivering training, presentations or learning activities, together with the ability to analyse complex information, and present it clearly to different audiences. Experience of tribunal representation, mentoring colleagues, and contributing to service or policy development would be particularly valuable.

This role would suit an experienced welfare rights practitioner who enjoys sharing knowledge, developing others and influencing practice. It offers an excellent opportunity to shape how welfare benefits advice is delivered across Derbyshire while continuing to make a direct difference to residents through specialist casework and advocacy.

Please refer to the Job and Person Profile for full details of the knowledge, skills and experience required. Applicants are strongly encouraged to demonstrate clearly within their suitability section how they meet each of the essential criteria.

Travel across Derbyshire may be required as part of the role. Hybrid working arrangements will be considered subject to service need.

Provisional interview date - 29 September 2026

Due to this post having access to children and/or vulnerable adults, the successful candidate will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily prevent an applicant from obtaining this post, as all cases are judged individually according to the nature of the role and information provided. Click here to see our policy on criminal background checks.

Important: Derbyshire County Council holds a sponsorship licence, but this role does not offer visa sponsorship. Please apply only if you already have the right to work in the UK without sponsorship, as applications that do not meet this requirement will be rejected.

We welcome applications from individuals who share our values — being Collaborative, Innovative, Empowered and Accountable. These values describe who we are and what we stand for as a council. They help shape our culture, encourage consistent behaviour and guide how we work together to make a positive difference for both our employees and the residents we serve.