Recovery Officer

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and dedicated individual to join our busy Revenues and Benefits Team as a Recovery Officer at Gloucester City Council. The successful candidate will be a committed team player who can work on their own initiative to complete tasks and achieve targets. The role is designed to maximise the revenue and income the council receives from Business Rates, Council Tax, and Housing Benefit Overpayments using a variety of enforcement tools. The successful candidate will be able to negotiate and agree repayment terms that are realistic, affordable, and sustainable, whilst bearing in mind the Council’s Recovery Policy, customer circumstances, and other essential financial commitments.

Responsibilities

• Deciding and implementing the most effective option to recover outstanding debts including referral to the enforcement agent, attachment to earnings, deduction from benefit, issue of pre‑committal and pre‑bankruptcy letters or County Court action.
• Supporting customers that are vulnerable, encouraging the take‑up of available benefits and discounts, negotiating debt repayment plans and applying discretion where necessary.
• Monitoring customer accounts to ensure payments are being received and taking action to progress recovery as appropriate.
• Assisting with the preparation of cases for court.
• Delivering excellent customer service when dealing with customers and stakeholders, providing explanations and clarification of decisions and actions taken relating to legislation, policy, and procedures.
• Signposting residents to additional/alternative support where it is outside the remit of the Revenues and Benefits service area.
• Issuing housing benefit overpayment invoices, monitoring arrangements with debtors, and taking appropriate action to recover unpaid debts.
• Answering and dealing with telephone enquiries from customers.

General Duties

• Ensuring confidentiality and compliance with GDPR.
• Providing excellent customer service.
• Working flexibly to support colleagues.
• Embracing the standards under the Council’s Employee Behaviours Framework.

Skills and personal qualities required

• Communicating confidently with customers, using tact and discretion where required.
• IT literate; familiar with Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Organised and methodical with good attention to detail.
• Punctual.
• Experience of working in council tax and/or business rates.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 5 GCSEs grade 4/C and above including English and Maths, or equivalent.

Things to consider

• The role will require you to work flexibly, working from the office in Gloucester when required and from home.
• You will need to complete a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check.

Additional Information

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

Equality and Diversity

Gloucester City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We’re fully committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for our employees as they’re at the heart of delivering our aims. We welcome applications from all sectors of our community. As an employer we strive to be more representative of our communities in our workforce and celebrate diversity. We recognise the positive value of equality and diversity and pride ourselves on growing a high‑performing workforce that is diverse, skilled and talented; that represents the community it serves. We aim to recruit a diverse pool of talent and will recruit the person who is most suited to the job without regard to their race, colour, religion or belief, age, nationality, ethnicity, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, caring responsibilities, or disability. We are a disability‑confident employer committed to removing barriers to employment for those with disabilities or long‑term health conditions. Reasonable adjustments will be made to the recruitment procedure to ensure that no one is disadvantaged because of their disability. Please contact the recruitment team if you require support or reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process.

If you wish to apply for this position on a secondment basis, please obtain approval from your current line manager that you may be released on a secondment before submitting an application form. It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.