Child Maintenance Service Caseworker - Birkenhead
Department for Work and Pensions
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 4th November 2024
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About the job
Job summary
Family separation is never easy. The Child Maintenance Service helps parents, who are unable to make a private financial agreement in support of their child(ren)’s living costs, ensure and at times enforce, the legal responsibility to provide financial support. Our mission is to ‘get money to children’ because it makes a real difference to children’s lives.
At The Child Maintenance Service (CMS), we welcome applications from everyone. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce where everybody can thrive. If you want to make a difference to the lives of others and be part of the UK’s largest public services Department, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), then this could be the career for you.
Are you an exceptional communicator? Are you passionate about delivering outstanding customer service? Do you enjoy helping others?
If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!
This is a fantastic opportunity to begin an exciting and fulfilling career. We offer flexibility with a work life balance alongside challenge and opportunity. This could be the first step in your Civil Service career.
Job description
As the UK government’s largest public service provider, DWP support people into work, help disabled people live more independent lives, improve housing and address homelessness, provide the financial foundation for a secure old age through the State Pension, and ensure children of separated parents have more opportunity to fulfil their potential through a better child maintenance system.
CMS are a crucial part of DWP. We are responsible for all aspects of child maintenance in Great Britain and our objective is to get money to children, we do this through promoting financial responsibility, encouraging and supporting private maintenance arrangements and through the provision of a statutory maintenance service.
Our caseworkers are key to the success of CMS. You will play a pivotal role in realising our objective of getting money to children. As part of a supportive and welcoming team, you will provide excellent customer service in a fast-paced service centre and telephony environment, supporting separated families and securing children’s futures.
What will I be doing?
- You will have frequent direct contact with our customers and other organisations, mostly by telephone.
- You will be resilient and remain professional in what can sometimes be a challenging environment.
- You will obtain information from a variety of sources to enable you to make accurate calculations and decisions regarding liability to pay child maintenance.
- You will negotiate child maintenance arrangements and payments with customers following child maintenance instructions and legislation.
- You will secure payments and clearly advise the consequences of non-payment.
- You will take payment enforcement actions where appropriate.
Attend a live webinar for more information on this role
If you would like to know more, you can attend a 60 minute webinar session via Microsoft Teams, which will include a short Q&A session. These will take place on the following dates and times, click on the links below to register for the event:
Person specification
What are we looking for?
- People who are resilient, calm and level-headed. Sometimes difficult conversations on the telephone with our customers are needed, and we need you to be able to successfully resolve queries in what can be difficult and sensitive situations.
- Enthusiastic people with great communication skills, who are passionate about delivering excellent customer service.
- People who are hardworking, who can manage a personal workload and also be great team players.
- People who can gather and understand sometimes complex information using guidance and legislation to make decisions.
- Digitally competent people who can navigate multiple IT systems.
Essential Criteria
This is what you will be assessed against, and should align your Personal Statement to. Your evidence will be assessed against the following essential criteria. You must ensure you provide specific examples to demonstrate this in your Personal Statement. Candidates should be able to demonstrate the following:
- Excellent communication skills.
- Exceptional customer service skills.
- Effective decision making skills.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Managing a Quality Service
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Working for DWP will include benefits such as learning and development tailored to your role, an environment with flexible working options, a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity and a Civil Service pension Civil Service pension.
CMS is committed to the Wellbeing of all colleagues, support includes Wellbeing conversations, dedicated Wellbeing Advocates in each Service Centre to develop and deliver health and wellbeing initiatives and our own Intranet site offering a wealth of information, guidance and support.
We Value Everybody is one of our five Core Values here in CMS. We have active National Network Groups for Race, Disability, Carers, Wellbeing, Faith & Belief and Age. Our monthly People Group meeting draws these groups together to listen, act, and update CMS Directors with our plans.
CMS Colleagues have the opportunity to join HASSRA, a vibrant and successful organisation that provides a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly). It also has an important part to play in helping us achieve a healthy work-life balance and wellbeing in the workplace.
Working hours - The contracted working hours for the Department are 07:45 hours to 20:00 hours, Monday to Friday, and 08:45 hours to 17:00 hours on Saturday. Employees are contracted to work a specific number of hours per week within the above times. Employees will be required to work the number of hours per week for which they are contracted. For example, for full time employees this will be 37 hours net (42 hours gross including meal breaks). For part-time employees it will be less.
Access to flexible working hours scheme will be available.
Please refer to the candidate pack for further information contained in this section of the advert and more information in relation to the Benefits of working for DWP.
Hybrid Working
This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Important Information
Location
Applicants should apply for suitable posts where they can travel to and from their home office location daily within a reasonable time.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed.
Training
On the commencement of your employment, you will be required to complete a period of full-time training and work-based learning which will take approximately 11 weeks.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Stage 1: Application & Sift
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a Personal Statement (Max 500 words) outlining how you meet the Essential Criteria:
- Excellent communication skills
(The ability to communicate effectively via spoken or written communication) - Exceptional customer service skills
(The ability to resolve customer queries, in what can sometimes be a sensitive or challenging environment) - Effective decision making skills
(The ability to gather and understand complex information to make decisions)
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
You can use an example or examples from either work, volunteering, your personal life or your academic life to complete your Personal Statement. We would recommend using only 1, or at a maximum 2 examples here, to stay within the 500 word count limit.
Important Information Regarding Anonymisation
When entering information on your Personal Statement relating to your employment/personal experiences history please ensure you remove any personal details that could be used to identify you. This relates to name and contact details which might usually appear on your Personal Statement.
Failure to do so will result in your application being withdrawn.
Depending on application numbers, we may progress all candidates who have applied directly to interview without assessing the written application evidence.
Stage 2: Interview
At stage 2 you will be invited to an interview via Microsoft teams. All elements of the interview will be via video link, and the whole process should take approximately 30-40 minutes. This will be a blended interview consisting of 2 types of questions, behaviour questions and strength questions.
To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the behaviour questions in advance of the interview. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions, and those about your abilities and strengths.
A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation at interview, offering a more inclusive approach. Strength and Behaviour based questioning explores what the candidate can and has done, but also their potential. The blended interview will consist of Behaviours, Strengths and Experience. The Behaviours being assessed at interview are:
- Communicating and Influencing (Lead Behaviour)
- Managing a Quality Service
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
Please refer to the Candidate Pack for further information.
The Civil Service Behaviours document should be able to help you prepare for the behaviour questions that you will be asked at interview. This document is designed to give you an overview of what is expected of individuals at each level. Before you attend your interview, think about examples that you can give of times when you have demonstrated the behaviours outlined above. This might be at work or somewhere else such as work experience, volunteering, your academic life or in connection with a hobby or your home life. When answering the questions, you could consider using the WHO method of answering questions to best structure your answer. This stands for What you did, How you did it and what the Outcome was.
Strengths Questions
We don’t advertise which strengths that we will be assessing at interview, but the Civil Service Strengths Dictionary should be able to help you prepare for these types of questions. Strength questions are designed to explore what interests you and what you enjoy doing. These questions will help the interview panel assess your strengths and preferred style of working. Your answers to this type of question will be shorter than that of a behaviour-based question and you will not be expected to use the WHO method’. The linked Civil Service Strengths Dictionary will give you an idea of the strengths we look for in the Civil Service, although you will never be expected to demonstrate all of these for one job role. Before the interview it would be helpful to reflect on what you feel are your personal strengths and preferred ways of working.
You can take notes into the interview to remind you of possible examples if you think this would help you, but to have the best interview experience possible, we do not recommend that you simply read from a script.
Approximate campaign timeline:
Approximate sift dates: 5 - 14 November 2024
Approximate interview dates: 25 November - 4 December 2024
Dates are subject to change.
Sometimes we may choose to invite all candidates straight to interview without assessing the written application evidence. Therefore, the interview timeline may change depending on the approach we decide to take.
If a provisional offer of employment is made, the pre-employment checking process can take up to 8 weeks for external candidates (see candidate pack for types of documentation required). Candidates may be made a conditional offer, this means you could take up post before certain checks have been completed, however, if subsequent checks fail, employment may be terminated.
Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.
DWP takes development seriously. Our aim is for our colleagues in these roles to be appropriately skilled and qualified – as determined by the business. To support this aim you may be required to undertake a work based qualification, which may be in the form of an apprenticeship, which will support you in further developing your professional knowledge and skills for this role and your future career development. The qualification can be undertaken in work time, you agree to take this job on the basis that you may be required to undertake a work based qualification; a candidate’s failure to participate fully in the professional programme, once appointed, may be a breach of their employment contract.
Important
If you hold a level 3 qualification (2 A levels or equivalent) then please bring your certificates with you to the interview if you have them.
Further information
Find out more about Working for DWP
A reserve list may be held for a period of 3 months from which further appointments can be made. If you are placed on a reserve list if your application is successful but we cannot immediately offer you a post, please note:
- If you are offered the role you applied for, in a location you have expressed a preference for, and you decline the offer or are unable to take up post within a reasonable timeframe you will be withdrawn from the campaign and removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances*.
- If DWP makes an offer of an alternative role or location to that which you originally applied for, and you decline that offer, you will be able to remain on the reserve list.
*Note - Exceptional circumstances could be when a candidate has requested a contractual Part Time Working Pattern and this pattern cannot be accommodated in the initial role offered or in cases of serious ill health.
Any further appointments made from the reserve list will be allocated in merit order.
Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Reasonable Adjustment
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.
We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Natalie Puckey
- Email : centralised.cmsrecruitmentsupport@dwp.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : dwprecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission.
