Housing jobs and the recession - Julie Vickers

July 2010

At New Charter Housing Trust in Ashton-Under-Lyne, there is an increased focus on helping communities to manage their money more effectively.

The housing team required new skills in order to launch its financial advice services and support the move from a traditional approach of collecting arrears to a system of active advice and management.

An experienced welfare benefits adviser was employed and then the team got going with developing their skills in-house. Courses on finance and welfare benefits for its housing staff were run by local agencies building up networks of contacts as well as sharing experience and knowledge. New Charter now offers a spread of welfare benefits advice, debt counselling and support for tenants before they take on a home independently.

Julie Vickers, who oversees the revenue teams at New Charter, says that the approach is paying off. Rent is the housing association's biggest source of income and collection rates have been going up since it expanded its advice services. For staff, the job has become more interesting and the team has expanded.

"Our focus now is on help, engagement and keeping people in their home. It means that there is much more variety to working in housing. We have grown the team in the last 12 months, adding one person to the welfare benefits team and one person to the debt team. We are really busy and in the past eight months the debt team has handled customers with £1.5m of debt."

Of the future Julie says: "The recession has acted as a catalyst as more and more tenants recognise that they need help. Our next phase will be looking at how we get people back into work. We recognise our broader welfare role in looking after our community".