The role
About Southwark:
Southwark is a large, ambitious and progressive council with a ‘can do’ attitude and enviable reputation. As a Council, we are successful, passionate and forward-thinking. We are committed to our ‘Fairer Futures for All’ promise which ensures that our residents and businesses are central to everything we do. If you want to make a difference at a local level, apply to Southwark Council today.
The role
An exciting opportunity has arisen to recruit Income officers within the Income Operations team. We are now looking for skilled and effective communicators who are confident negotiators and able to liaise with a variety of external and internal stakeholders in order to achieve challenging rent collection targets. Income collection in Southwark remains challenging with the continued impacts of welfare reform and universal credit.
As part of the Income Team you will be customer focussed and have the ability to adapt to innovative collection practices to maximise Income collection through regular monitoring of rent accounts. If you are interested in this challenging position and are willing to go the extra mile then we would like to hear from you.
Key duties and responsibilities of the role.
- You will be the first point of contact for tenants and their representatives in respect to all residential rent charges, arrears and queries.
- You will responsible for negotiating repayment plans, determining which cases to escalate and take legal action on rather internally or through referrals to legal services.
- You will be accountable for liaising and corresponding with tenants, the court service, external solicitors, other tenant representatives, fraud and investigation services, representing the Council’s interests and providing a professional and responsive service.
- You will be expected to protect and enhance the Council’s reputation through a high quality, professional income collection service.
- You will ensure that customers are referred for debt counselling and welfare benefit advice and services that are appropriate to the customer needs and service requirements with a particular emphasis on assisting vulnerable tenants and/or signposting them to Local Support or external support agencies.
- You will take appropriate and timely action on rent arrears cases, closely monitoring and analysing accounts.
About You:
Additional Information:
- You will have experience in a customer facing role, ideally in a social housing or income collection.
- You will have experience in the application of housing income collection procedures and policies.
- You will have experience of working in a performance management environment
- You will be experienced in meeting personal and team performance targets
- You will be able to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing
- You will be able to Negotiate and problem-solve
Benefits and more information:
- https://jobs.theguardian.com/minisites/southwark-council/life-at-southwark-benefits-and-more/
Recruitment timetable
Closing Date: Sunday 19th September 2021
Interviews: 27th September 2021.
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