Casework Officer

The Government People Group exists to work with departments, professions, and functions to build a modern, effective Civil Service.

We support the government workforce with the right skills and capability. We are working with leaders to get the right people in the right jobs, with the right skills and continuous learning to excel in their roles.

We provide leadership, and in turn, create leaders with exceptional line management capability across departments, influencing partners in the wider public sector and beyond. This involves getting our retention and reward strategy right, to nurture specific skills, and create pride and resilience in our workforce.

Our role is also to provide system leadership across central government in pulling together back office services. Collectively, we help support the Cabinet Office’s priority to drive efficiencies, and reforms that will make government work better, to ultimately provide a better service to the public.

• We are seeking highly organised Executive Officers to be part of the Civil Service and Royal Mail Pensions Casework Team.
• Casework Officers investigate a number a different case types including: official correspondence and complaints, internal dispute resolution appeals, redundancy requests and overpayments – no two days are quite the same.
• Each Casework Officer is responsible for managing their individual caseload which could be made up of one or a number of case types depending on incoming workloads.
• Casework Officers report in to a Casework Manager who provides advice and reviews cases prior to them being completed.

The successful candidate will have excellent investigation and case handling skills and be comfortable working to targets and deadlines. Pensions and/or complaints knowledge is desirable.

Job Description

• Ensuring all the case details are recorded accurately on our digital system, with the case file kept up to date
• Reviewing the correspondence and evidence available to determine the key issues that require investigating and the information required to do this
• Contacting members, employers, the pensions administrator and other third parties to request the evidence required to reach a conclusion
• Reviewing the evidence and circumstances of the case to determine if the member has been treated correctly
• Identifying good practice and determining if something has gone wrong that needs to be put right
• Reaching sound decisions based on the facts of the case. There are a number of resources available to assist with this including the guidance and policies set out for the Casework Team and the Civil Service and Royal Mail Schemes’ rules
• Identifying where technical advice is required to apply scheme rules and regulations, and seeking this through the appropriate channels
• Meeting service levels and following processes at each stage of an investigation to ensure it is progressed efficiently Communicating clearly and effectively with members and other stakeholders, including:
• Drafting clear and concise responses that explain clearly and persuasively the outcome of an investigation
• Using templates and standard wording to ensure consistent messages are delivered to stakeholders but identifying where these need to adapted to suit the circumstances of the case
• Using a variety of communication methods to provide succinct explanations and answer additional questions that will aid the understanding of the relevant parties
• Working with the Casework Team and to provide a high quality and effective casework system:
• Being adaptable and willing to vary your caseload depending on the incoming workloads and priorities set for the team
• Sharing knowledge gained through casework with the rest of the Civil Service Pensions and Royal Mail team on how to improve the service to members
• Contributing regularly to reports on the investigations completed and providing feedback based on investigations.
• The types of Casework that are dealt with in the Casework Team are:
• Responding to official correspondence received by the Civil Service and Royal Mail Pensions team, including from MPs and senior officials
• Completing investigations in to the Second Stage of the formal complaints process
• Managing appeals made to the Pensions Ombudsman
• Responding to Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests and Subject Access Requests (SARs), including any appeals to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Essential Skills Required

• Excellent written/drafting skills (this will be tested via assessment at interview).
• Excellent analytical or investigative skills.
• The successful candidate will be required to undertake a bespoke pension’s qualification.

 Desirable skills

• Investigations or complaints handling experience.
• Experience of drafting responses to correspondence or complaints.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Job contact :

• Name : James O’Dwyer
• Email : james.odwyer@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk