MAIN PURPOSE  

You will improve the financial capability and resilience of clients by providing budgeting support, debt prevention advice, and practical money management skills. The role focuses on early intervention, helping clients take control of their finances before issues escalate into crisis.

You will deliver one-to-one support as well as targeted group sessions in community and outreach settings, equipping clients with the knowledge and tools to manage their finances independently.

You will also support clients to maximise their income by ensuring they are in receipt of the correct welfare benefits, identifying and making grant and trust fund applications, and advising on other income maximisation options. Where more complex needs are identified, you will ensure timely referrals into specialist advice services.

The Keyworker will have the following objectives:

• Act as a main point of contact for allocated clients and assess their advice and support needs

• Help clients identify goals and devise/review financial action plans

• Follow up non-attendance, working with clients to remove any barriers

• Support clients gathering and submitting information needed to progress their enquiries

• Co-ordinate clients access to advice, ensuring they are prepared for both internal and external appointments

• Liaise with external referral partners where appropriate 

Income Maximisation Advice

• Support clients to prepare an initial budget and gather details of any debts

• Carry out benefit checks and calculations to identify entitlement and help with applications for benefits including Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

• Identify grants, trust funds and social tariffs that the client may be eligible for and submit applications on the client’s behalf

• Explore other income maximization options with the client, including but not limited to Discretionary Housing Payments and the Household Support Fund

• Issue food and fuel vouchers

Referrals

• Refer into the Ask Us Wirral service for any general advice issues

• Identify urgent debt advice needs and support clients to access debt casework  

• Follow up all referrals with clients to check that their advice needs continue to be met

• Attach all client paperwork to the case recording system to support internal referrals 

• Support clients to make appointments with external organizations and help prepare for appointments e.g. specialist housing appointments. 

Financial Capability & Outreach

• Deliver budgeting, debt prevention, and money management support to clients

• Plan and deliver targeted group sessions in community and outreach settings

• Adapt delivery to meet the needs of different client groups, including vulnerable clients

• Promote financial resilience, including building confidence, saving habits, and managing essential costs

• Work with partner organisations to engage clients at an early stage to prevent crisis situations

Other

• Attend relevant internal and external meetings as agreed with the line manager. 

• Prepare for and attend one to one supervisions/team meetings/staff meetings as appropriate.

• Ensure GDPR compliant training is completed on an annual basis.

• Ensure all work conforms to Citizens Advice Wirral’s systems and procedures.

• Demonstrate a commitment to the aims and policies of Citizens Advice.

• Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.

• Recognise the importance of safeguarding procedures within the organisation ensuring that any concerns, disclosures or allegations of abuse are immediately and correctly reported.

• To attend occasional out of hours events in conjunction with the work of Citizens Advice Wirral and participate in fund-raising activities.

• Carry out any other tasks that may be within the scope of the post to ensure the effective delivery and development of the service. 

FINANCIAL CAPABILITY KEYWORKER: Person Specification

Essential criteria:

1. Level 2 qualifications (GCSE or equivalent)  in maths and English with the ability to complete a household budget, calculate benefits and accurately assess and record financial gains as well as write up accurate case notes, letters and reports. 

2. Knowledge of the advice process and experience in the areas of either benefits or debt as well as a commitment to further developing knowledge in these areas and also in relation to financial capability.

3. Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage confidently with clients either face to face or on the phone, developing a professional relationship that enables them to fully engage with the project and develop their financial resilience. 

4. Demonstrate an understanding of issues facing vulnerable clients, many with mental health problems.

5. Demonstrable experience of using a range of IT systems and packages confidently and competently.

6. Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage own workload and plan time efficiently to ensure deadlines are met.

7. Ability and willingness to work as part of a team and have a flexible approach as and where required by client needs. Flexibility to work out of hours if required.

8. Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the Citizens Advice service and commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Desirable criteria:

9. Experience of supporting clients with grant and trust fund applications.

Interview date: Tuesday 9th June 2026

Interview location: Birkenhead, Wirral

Please note: Interviews will be held in person only. Virtual interviews are not available for this role.

Citizens Advice Wirral is part of the Disability Confident scheme. We're taking positive action by providing interviews to candidates who have a registered disability - provided they meet the minimum skills for the role. We'll ask you whether you are eligible when you apply, so if you'd like to be considered for this scheme, all you need to do is let us know in your application.

At Citizens Advice Wirral we use role-specific situational questions as part of our recruitment process. These are designed to help us understand how applicants would approach scenarios they are likely to encounter in the role. Applications are assessed on the quality, relevance and authenticity of responses, and the extent to which answers demonstrate the applicant’s own judgement, reasoning and experience.

We use AI screening tools to support the review process. Where answers appear overly generic or do not clearly reflect an applicant’s own thinking or decision-making, this may affect how strongly the answer scores against the marking criteria.

If you require assistive technology or other support to complete your application, or need reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.