Council Tax Collection Officer/ Admin - Revenue & Benefits
| Posting date: | 13 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £13.02 per hour |
| Additional salary information: | per hour PAYE |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 12 May 2024 |
| Location: | EXETER, EX1 1JN |
| Company: | Triumph Consultants Ltd |
| Job type: | Temporary |
| Job reference: | Exeter TCL 5247588 |
Summary
What's involved with this role:
Temporary Council Tax Collection Officer/ Admin - Revenue & Benefits
Reference no: Exeter TCL 5247588
Pay Rate: £13.02 per hour PAYE
37 Monday to Friday, normal working hours
This opening assignment is for 2 months
City: EXETER
Rate is negotiable depending on experience
Remote working
Collect Council Tax. Deal daily with queries received as a result of recovery action being taken on cases that have fallen into arrears.
Monitor cases in arrears daily, and where appropriate, initiate escalation of recovery action in accordance with statutory regulations, legislation and case law. Promote and uphold the ‘Help me with my financial/housing problem’ system principles, including taking one view of debt, and consistently using income and expenditure detail to inform sustainable solutions.
Key responsibilities:
Ensure that the recovery of Council Tax arrears is appropriate and proportionate, in accordance with System principles and regulatory requirements.
Fully understand each customer’s overall debt to the council and agree appropriate and sustainable payment arrangements to clear that debt.
Provide advice and support to customers in financial hardship, negotiating payment plans, initiating income and expenditure analysis, and exploring sustainable solutions including use of discretionary funds, match funding and income maximisation.
Daily, proactively preventing debt, by making contact with customers in the early stages of arrears to discuss circumstances and payment arrangements.
Making appropriate referrals for case working of multi debts to the Senior Collection Officer and dual debts to the Collection Officer.
Provide a full customer advice and support service by telephone, written and electronic communications and face to face at the council’s offices and to update customer records as necessary. Provision of information as appropriate to external 3rd party customer representatives such as advice agencies and community & voluntary organisations in relation to arrears cases.
Gather information and make recommendations on cases to be considered for write off.
Undertake all administrative tasks associated with the team including incoming post, daily adjustments to arrangements, checking cases when escalated action is recommended, updating customer records and other administrative tasks as required.
Provide feedback and ideas to improve team performance in relation to failure demand, customer behaviour and other external influences on debt recovery.
NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and job title exactly.
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.
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items:
Qualifications:
IRRV Level 2 Diploma in Local Taxation, Benefits and Advice (QCF) or substantial proven equivalent experience.
Knowledge:
A detailed knowledge of the legal process and procedure in relation to the collection of Council Tax from first reminder up to and including committal.
A working knowledge of financial customer solutions available including payment arrangement, discretionary funding and write off with the ability to explore sustainable ways to maintain and maximise the councils income in a customer focussed way.
An understanding of financial regulation and rules in relation to customer payments e.g. direct debit guarantee.
A good understanding of security protocols in relation to the taking of customer payments and handling personal and financial information.
Experience:
Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
Adequate current experience of working within a high pressure income recovery and customer focussed environment.
Council Tax Billing and Recovery experience
Skills & Abilities:
Excellent negotiation skills with customers who need to understand the severity of their debt situation.
Good IT skills including an intermediate level of bespoke design and engineering related software.
Good communication skills at all levels to deal with frequent enquiries on income collection and related issues with customers, colleagues, members and 3rd party representatives.
The ability to proactively contact with customers to confidently discuss debt.
Independent decision making when negotiating arrangements with customers.
ALD
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Job Ref: Exeter TCL 5247588
Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.
Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates.
We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed.
Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs.
Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.