Temporary Debtors & Collections Admin Officer

Reference no:  Durham 1004406413358841

Pay Rate: Up to £11.59 per hour PAYE depending on experience

Role Length: This opening assignment is for 7 months

Basic DBS disclosure required for this role

The purpose of the role is to support the management and collection of all Council Revenues including Council Tax, Business Rates and all sundry debts, giving due consideration to appropriate payment methods, allocation and recovery in a manner which complies with relevant legislation, case law, and the working practices and procedures and Council policies, including the Council’s Debt Management Policy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Supporting and assisting the Senior Officer in the day-to-day provision of the service, in accordance with Council Policies and all relevant Regulations.
• To be responsible for processing all work allocated to them by the Senior Officer, in accordance with the Services performance indicators and office procedures.
• To be conversant and maintain a good working knowledge of all legislation, procedures and working practices relating to Housing Benefits, Council Tax Exemptions & Discounts, Non-Domestic Rates and Durham County Council’s Council Tax Reduction Scheme, the Care Act and recovery of social care debt, sundry debt and insurance claims.
• Accurately calculate any arrears in respect of moneys due to the Council ensuring compliance with legislation and procedures.
• Invoice service users in respect of social care plan contributions every 4 weeks, including the promotion, management and monitoring of Direct Debit payments.
• Process internal and external claims (including damage claims) ensuring that systems are effectively monitored and to ensure that deadlines are met and claims resolved in a timely manner.
• Provide advice, support & guidance to service areas on all aspects of the sundry debt process.
• Notify and advise customers of the results of their non-payment for Council revenues and the subsequent recovery actions.
• Maximise income for the Council by taking the appropriate timely recovery action.
• Protect vulnerable customers through the application of the Council’s Discretionary Housing Payment Policy, Safeguard policies and Debt Management Policy ensuring that customers have all benefits, discounts and reliefs that they are entitled to.
• The collation of information to ensure the prompt and accurate reconciliation of all payments received by the Council to individual accounts and main funds in line with prescribed targets.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

1. Relevant Level 2 qualification or equivalent.

Skills & Experience:

1. Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
2. Experience of dealing with customer enquiries in a customer focused environment.
3. Working to tight deadlines.
4. Working collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders.
5. Experience of following defined process and procedure.
6. Experience of updating data systems.

Skills & Abilities:

1. Excellent communications and interpersonal skills with the ability to manage confrontational situations.
2. The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English.
3. Excellent organisational and time management skills and ability to plan and prioritise own workload and work effectively as part of a team to meet deadlines and targets.
4. Highly numerate to effectively manage debts, arrears and payment plans.
5. ICT Skills: Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.