Assessor

Are you interested in people? Non-judgemental? Good at learning and retaining information? Then perhaps you'd be interested in becoming a volunteer assessor with Citizens Advice Hart?

What will you do?

• complete an introduction to Citizens Advice and training for your role
• talk to clients over the phone, face to face, or online to explore what issues they have come for help with
• find information about the clients’ problems and help them to understand their options
• write a summary of the clients’ problems and what action you have taken
• look out for issues that are common, or are unfair, and write a short report about the problem or a letter to an elected official like an MP, AM or local councillor.

Some examples of what you could do:

• find the information online that explains how to apply for Housing Benefit in a client’s local area and explain it to them
  
• identify what steps a client can take to resolve their problem with a second-hand car
• help a client find and understand what steps they can take to deal with their rent arrears

What’s in it for you?

• make a real difference to people’s lives
• learn about a range of issues such as benefits, debt, employment and housing
• build on valuable skills such as communication, listening and analysing
• increase your employability
• work with a range of different people, independently and in a team.
• have a positive impact in your community.

And we will reimburse expenses too.

Valuing inclusion:

Our volunteers come from a range of backgrounds, and we particularly welcome applications from disabled people, people with physical or mental health conditions, LGBT+ and non-binary people, and people from Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.

If you are interested in becoming an assessor and would like to discuss flexibility around location, time, what you will do and how we can support you please contact us.

Skills

You don’t need specific qualifications or skills but you’ll need to:

• be friendly and approachable
• be non-judgmental and respect views, values and cultures that are different from your own
• have good listening skills
• have excellent verbal and written communication skills
• have good maths and IT skills
• be able to understand information and explain it to others
• be willing to learn about and follow the Citizens Advice aims, principles, and policies, including confidentiality and data protection
• be willing to undertake training in your role