Income and Housing Officer in London

We’re looking for friendly, innovative and resilient Income and Housing Officers to join our Landlord Services Team located at our Head Office in Islington. Want to feel like you have an exciting future? You’ll feel at home here. Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That’s why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren’t token gestures - we’ve thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.

Our benefits include:

• Annual leave increasing up to days with length of service
• Free DBS
• Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
• Fully paid induction programme and further training
• ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme for confidential support
• Online wellbeing resources
• A generous pension – we will contribute up to % and life assurance cover up to £ (T&Cs apply)
• Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff’s commitment and contribution

All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.

As an Income and Housing Officer you will help to maximise the organisation’s rental income collection, effectively manage rent arrears and deal with other breaches of the occupancy agreement. Managing a patch of + units across our services you will ensure that challenging rent collection targets are met but also that everything is done to avoid eviction. Your personal qualities are as important in this role as your work experience. Working alongside Operational Colleagues, the Income and Housing Officer will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of generic Housing Management services across their patch with the main focus on Income Collection and some ASB management. You will be expected to meet tight KPI’s increasing rent collection and carry out rent arrears actions at all stages from the initial warning letters to the eviction stage.

In order to effectively deliver the services listed above to their patch, the Income and Housing Officer will need to work closely with Contract Managers and Support Workers working within our projects to empower and enable them to carry out their responsibilities. Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills are a pre-requisite to the role. The post holder will be extremely flexible and have the ability to effectively manage multiple projects at one time.

What you’ll do:

• Take responsibility for maximising rent collection across a defined patch of Look Ahead’s portfolio of properties ensuring that rent collection targets are met and tenancies sustained
• Advise operational teams on their support related arrears management activities, including holding local surgeries with tenants and staff, taking direct control of higher level and more complex arrears cases
• Proactively monitor all current and former accounts within the defined patch and make recommendations to the Housing Manager for appropriate former accounts to be written off or referred to Look Ahead’s debt collection agency
• Ensure that the rent collection function is carried out both sensitively and in a timely fashion so as to avoid the build up of excessive arrears and record all case details accurately.
• Ensure that all sign ups within the defined patch are done accurately on the correct type of tenancy and at the correct rent and service charge levels.
• Prepare files and documents for legal action and present cases in County Court hearings for possession claims, money judgements
• Serve NTQs, NOSPs, NRPs and carry out home visits as requested.
• Accurately and comprehensively record all actions on the housing management system and use reports from the housing management system to manage cases and monitor performance
• Assist with the taking on of new agency housing management responsibilities related to new services and as needed with the transfer of housing management responsibilities schemes to other providers
• Ensure that confidentiality and data protection is maintained throughout the service including all information held in whatever form
• Respond to management issues such as disputes and complaints including breaches of tenancy and / or licence conditions
• Ensure that there are effective and ongoing liaison processes in place with key agencies such as the housing benefit service, Department of Work and Pensions, the Job Centre and local debt advice agencies
• Develop and promote financial inclusion initiatives in the service such as advertising credit unions and local debt management advice services
• Contribute to special projects such as tenancy audits and suspected sub-letting
• Assist in the training of new support staff in the tenancy aspects of support for customers.
• Any other relevant tasks as required by the Housing Manager

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

About you:

• An understanding of the needs of customers who have experienced homelessness and who may also have support needs.
• Excellent time management skills to systematically monitor arrears and complete other tasks in a logical and systematic way.
• Excellent communication skills and experience of dealing with vulnerable people in a sensitive, friendly and clear manner.
• An understanding of how to effectively deal with breaches of occupancy such as anti-social behaviour and abandonment.
• The ability to communicate clearly with non-housing management staff and explain cases in a non-technical way.
• A logical approach to problem solving and a willingness to deal with problems quickly and efficiently.
• A willingness to “go the extra mile” when working with our customers.

What you’ll bring:

• Experience of monitoring rent accounts and managing rent arrears
• Experience of using computerised rent systems to monitor arrears and record information
• Extensive knowledge of welfare benefits, especially housing benefit
• Experience of liaising with housing benefit departments, the DWP and other external agencies.

About us:

Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us. We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:

• We focus on Excellence and innovation.
• We are Caring and Compassionate.
• We are Inclusive and Trusted.
• We work in Partnership and are One-Team.

Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.

We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date. We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.