Council Tax Recovery Officer

The Guildhall Northampton; Northampton; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

West Northamptonshire Council is seeking a Council Tax Recovery Officer to manage Council Tax recovery work, issue notices, progress cases through recovery stages and negotiate realistic payment arrangements with residents.

You will communicate with customers by phone, email and post, support those in financial difficulty, work with colleagues and enforcement agents to ensure compliant, effective debt collection and contribute to service improvements.

Qualifications

• Experience in Revenues, Council Tax or debt recovery is advantageous.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills.
• Ability to learn complex legislation and work accurately with attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Manage a varied caseload of Council Tax recovery work.
• Issue recovery notices and progress cases through recovery stages.
• Negotiate payment arrangements and support customers in debt management.
• Communicate via telephone, email and written correspondence with clarity.
• Contribute to service improvements and support testing and reporting.

Skills

Negotiation

Customer service

Legislation

Attention to detail

Job description

About The Role

Helping residents find sustainable solutions while protecting vital Council income is at the heart of this role. As a Council Tax Recovery Officer, you'll play an important part in supporting the financial stability of West Northamptonshire Council by ensuring appropriate recovery action is taken while providing a fair, professional and customer-focused service.

Working within our Revenues & Benefits Service, you'll manage Council Tax recovery processes, support customers who are experiencing difficulties with their payments and help maximise collection rates that enable the Council to continue delivering essential services to our communities. This is a rewarding opportunity for someone who enjoys problem solving, working with legislation and supporting customers to achieve positive outcomes.

What will you be doing?

You'll manage a varied caseload of Council Tax recovery work, ensuring recovery action is taken in accordance with legislation, Council policy and agreed procedures. This will include issuing recovery notices, progressing cases through various stages of recovery, negotiating payment arrangements and supporting customers to find realistic and sustainable ways to manage their debt.

You’ll deal directly with customers through telephone, email and written correspondence, providing clear information and guidance while balancing the need to maximise collection rates with a sensitive and customer-focused approach. You’ll also work closely with colleagues, enforcement agents and other stakeholders to ensure the Council's approach to debt recovery remains effective, consistent and compliant.

Alongside your day-to-day casework, you'll contribute to service improvements, support system testing and reporting activities, and represent the Council at court hearings where required.

About You

You're a confident communicator who can build rapport, negotiate effectively and deal with sensitive situations in a calm and professional manner. You enjoy working with detailed information and legislation, and you're comfortable making decisions that require both sound judgement and empathy.

You have strong organisational skills and can manage a busy workload while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail. Experience within a Revenues, Council Tax or debt recovery environment would be advantageous, but equally important is your ability to learn complex legislation, work collaboratively and deliver excellent customer service.

Most importantly, you'll be motivated by helping customers find solutions while contributing to the effective management of public funds. You'll share our THRIVE values and our commitment to delivering high-quality services that support the residents and communities of West Northamptonshire.

Our benefits

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

About Us

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email [e-mail] for support.

Please note we reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications, so we recommend applying as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.

Attached documents

• Council Tax Recovery Officer Job Description and Person Specification template (Aug-26).pdf

• Salary £35,332 - £38,291
• Salary Frequency Annual
• Working Hours 37
• Job Reference Ref/162341/9301
• Contract Type Full Time
• Closing Date 27 September, 2026
• Job Category Revenues and Benefits
• Location Northampton, United Kingdom
• Job Posted Date 11 September, 2026