Job Title: Income Officer
Location: Homebased Warrington
Salary: £27,898 - £29,000
Hours: 35 per week
So…. What is this role exactly?
This is an exciting opportunity for a customer focused individual, to join our fantastic income collection team, with the potential for extension or a permanent contract, for the right person. You will be homebased living within a 25-mile radius of our Head Office in Warrington.
This role is perfect for someone would enjoy working in a fast-paced collections environment, who is target driven but wants to maintain a healthy work-life balance! You do not need to be experienced in collections to apply, a background in phone-based customer service is an ideal starting point. We are looking for an individual who is resilient, well organised and be able to handle both challenging and sensitive conversations with customers. In this role, there is no requirement for you to visit customers in their homes.
What will my working week look like?
You will be working 35 hours a week, Monday to Friday. You will be homebased, living within a 25-mile radius of Warrington and a reasonable travelling distance of our Head Office in Birchwood, to attend occasional meetings and training courses.
You will visit Head Office frequently throughout your induction period, but once that is completed, you will be required to visit usually just twice a month for team days.
Your day-to-day work will involve handling inbound calls and managing a caseload of customers.
- reviewing rent accounts
- contacting customers by telephone and through our digital platforms
- identifying reasons for any arrears
- discussing repayment options and making affordable, sustainable arrangements
- offering basic welfare benefit advice
Where a customer’s circumstances are more complex, you will collaborate closely with our specialist money advice, tenancy support and housing management teams, to ensure we get the best outcomes we can for our customers and for YHG.
What will I be responsible for doing?
You will be designated a patch of properties for which you are responsible for collecting the rent and/or charges. You will make calls and take action to recover outstanding rent, mitigating loss of income by being proactive in terms of supporting customers with making sustainable payment arrangements and benefit claims.
As well as managing your own caseload you will answer inbound calls from our customers on a daily/rota basis, ensuring referrals are made to internal and external agencies, so that we can be confident that our customers are getting the support they need. You will also make decisions around progressing cases to legal action when all other avenues have been exhausted.
And what would make me stand out from the crowd?
To be a successful Income Officer, here at YHG, you will have….
- Experience or interest in collections.
- Customer service experience, ideally in a phone-based environment.
- Excellent communication skills, not afraid to ask probing questions to get to the root cause of any financial issues.
- Experience dealing with complex customer situations, some of which may stem from a temporary or longer-term vulnerability.
- the ability to manage a varied caseload in a fast-paced environment.
Ideally you will ….
- An understanding of the benefits system (Housing Benefit, Universal Credit)
- have excellent customer care skills.
- be well organised, self-motivated and a problem solver.
- have effective communication and interpersonal skills.
This role is really suited to someone who can understand our customers and their circumstances, someone who is not afraid to ask questions, and through professional curiosity, can get to the underlying issues, someone who will make our customers feel supported and work with them to find solutions to their debt issues.
For more detail on the role, please review the role profile available by visiting the vacancy on our website - www.yourhousinggroup.co.uk/careers.
That all sounds great, what’s in it for me?
In return we offer a salary in the range of £27,898 - £29,000 for a 35-hour week working Monday to Friday. You’ll also have 25 days annual leave (holidays also increase with length of service) plus Bank Holidays, but our employee deal offers much more than just a competitive salary and holiday allowance.
We offer a home working culture, giving you more time at home, no more daily commute or the expense that comes with that. However, we know that those social interactions with your teammates are also important, so we have a state-of-the-art collaboration space based in Birchwood, Warrington (which you will need to be able to comfortably commute to when needed for team days, meetings, and training etc).
On top of this, we’ll provide you with a great benefits package, including a contributory pension where we match whatever you choose to contribute (up to 8%), an advanced level Healthcare cash plan through BHSF, that doesn’t just provide dental and optician cashback but also health and wellbeing benefits (such as 24/7 GP Access, money back from prescriptions and alternative therapy treatments) and an amazing discount scheme that gives you access to half price cinema tickets, subsidised gym memberships and a huge range of discounts with some of the biggest high street and online names.
For more of our great benefits, please review the benefits information sheet available by visiting the vacancy on our website - www.yourhousinggroup.co.uk/careers.
And who are Your Housing Group?
Your Housing Group is a registered social landlord helping people at every stage of life to live in quality homes they can afford.
As one of the North’s sector-leading landlords, we are proud to play our role in tackling the UK's housing crisis by continually reinvesting in our 29,000 properties and tailoring our services to meet the diverse needs of our customers. We also build over 1,000 new homes each year.
We are an employer of choice, over 88% of colleagues here recommend us as a 'great place to work.
Closing Date: 18th November 2024
We review applications as they are received and reserve the right to close this advert early; if you are interested, please apply ASAP to avoid disappointment.
Your Housing Group values diversity and encourages applications from all communities. Your Housing Group operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for any applicants who declare they have a disability, if these applicants meet the minimum requirements for the role (as set out in the role profile and/or person specification) they will be guaranteed an interview. Your Housing Group welcomes applications from our customers, however, access to confidential information and probity will be explored to determine whether there is a potential conflict of interest or security issue present which may prevent the Group from being able to proceed with the application. YHG1
