Income Officer
Reference: SEP20241723
Expiry date: 11:30, Mon, 7th Oct 2024
Location: Second floor, 230 Blackfriars Road, London
Benefits: Circa £37,000 annual salary, 29 days annual (pro rata for part time), 4% - 6% pension contribution and much more.
Founded in 1967 as the Merton Family Housing Trust, we have since grown into an organisation with over 7,000 homes across nine south London boroughs. We are a provider of homes for rent (social and affordable), shared ownership, outright sale, and supported housing. We also have a small portfolio of commercial properties and garages.
At Wandle, we pride ourselves in delivering safe and affordable homes along with low cost, dependable, localised services to our customers. The housing customer service delivery team are responsible for the delivery of excellent services using a partnership approach with residents to ensure early intervention and resolution in anti-social behaviour, allocations and lettings, tenancy management, resident involvement, estate cleaning and grounds maintenance, supporting other departments across the organisation on customer service delivery, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
A day in the life:
You will:
1. Manage rent accounts and other housing related debts, on a regular basis in line with Wandle’s policies and procedures, in order to identify cases that require action.
2. Negotiate repayment agreements with tenants and take corrective action where such agreements are not maintained, adhering to the Ministry of Justice Pre-action Protocol for Rent Possessions.
3. Prepare and submit cases to the County Court for Possession Hearings and attend court hearings and carry out evictions due to rent arrears.
4. Refer residents to welfare benefit and debt support services to ensure that residents are able to maximise their income by ensuring take up of any entitlement to benefits.
5. Make regular and early contact with all residents in arrears through home visits, telephone calls, text messages, e-mails and office interviews, sometimes outside normal working hours.
6. Identify vulnerable residents and make referrals to the resident support team to ensure appropriate support is put in place.
7. Maximize income collection while minimising the risk of repossession through making use of direct housing payments, charitable applications, food bank referrals and any other means of financial support available.
8. Deliver income management services while demonstrating high standards of customer care.
9. Support and implement Wandle’s response to Welfare Reform measures.
10. Deliver against annual team and individual targets for income collection.
What you will need to have:
1. Knowledge of housing law, the regulatory framework and good practice with regards to debt recovery essentials.
2. Front line experience in credit control.
3. Experience of presenting cases to court and knowledge of the court system and legal remedies relating to debt recovery.
4. Proven experience within a customer service environment and able to demonstrate high levels of customer care.
5. Self-motivated and able to prioritise own workload and work on own initiative.
6. Extensive knowledge of welfare benefits and welfare benefit reform.
7. Commitment to providing a high-quality service to residents, colleagues and external stakeholders.
8. Experience using Dynamic, PCOL and RentSense will be an advantage.
What next?
If you want to be part of a winning team that takes pride in delivering excellent customer service to our customers and believe you have the skills and experience to be successful in this role, we would love to hear from you.
Please apply with your CV and supporting statement on no more than two sides of A4 ensuring you address the ‘What you’ll need to have’ section set out in the role profile by Monday, 7 October 2024.
Please also note that ahead of the final stage interviews you will be asked to undertake a number of online tests/assessments. Interviews will be held in the mid of October 2024.
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