Council Tax Revenue Officer (REMOTE)

Essential Employment; Barking; Remote; GBP 25,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Essential Employment is recruiting a Council Tax Revenue Officer to support remote delivery from Barking. You will handle debt recovery, respond to enquiries, negotiate payment plans, and keep accurate records across revenue streams such as Council Tax, Business Rates and Housing Benefit Overpayment.

The role emphasizes fair collection, compliance with regulations, and providing excellent customer service. This temp/full-time post offers the chance to contribute to a municipal financial service

Qualifications

• Experience in debt recovery processes.
• Ability to handle correspondence through multiple channels.
• Record keeping on revenue systems and invoices.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to debt recovery across multiple revenue streams (Council Tax, Business Rates, Parking, Housing Benefit Overpayment).
• Receive and respond to customer correspondence via email, phone, or in person.
• Negotiate and agree payment plans based on customers' means and circumstances.
• Update revenue systems with liability, collection, enforcement details, and case progress to court when needed.
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records and prepare necessary documentation for write-offs or actions.

Skills

Debt recovery

Communication

Negotiation

Customer service

Job description

Council Tax Revenue Officer (REMOTE) needed in Barking, £21.66phPAYE – Reference: 2273

• To contribute to the provision of a quality Revenue collection service for all streams, including but not limited to Council Tax, Business Rates, Parking, Leasehold, Commercial Rent, General Income, Housing Benefit Overpayment and Rent, undertaking a range of activities in accordance with legislation, statutory regulations, policy, operational procedures and performance indicators.
• To manage and monitor all aspects of the debt recovery process in a fair, effective, and economic way.
• To function consistently and effectively as a member of the Revenue Team.

• To receive and deal with correspondence from customers, landlords, members, CAB and outside agencies relating to recovery issues through a variety of channels e.g., correspondence, e mails, telephones, face to face etc and the correct processing of that information to enable effective collection of all the income streams.
• To ensure all correspondence is dealt with fairly, impartially and objectively through an appropriate channel.
• Ensure that the correct details regarding liability, collection and enforcement are recorded on the revenues systems and to undertake the tracing of debtors in order that the correct action is taken to recover all unpaid accounts.
• Negotiate and agree suitable repayment plans with customers, taking into account the means and circumstances of people liable to pay, in accordance with policies and guidelines in force at the time.
• To receive payments from customers and to ensure payments are kept secure and are recorded and credited to the customer's account accurately and promptly.
• To respond to complaints from customers and enquiries from MPs and Senior Officers.
• To undertake home visits and property inspections to deal with debt collection, liability and valuation issues.
• To attend Court hearings where required to assist with queries, make payment arrangements and assist the Court Officers as required.
• To undertake the allocation of income from suspense accounts, including the transfer of credits between accounts and invoices. To identify errors/discrepancies and to undertake reconciliation of accounts taking corrective action as required.
• Identify errors/ discrepancies in information passed between systems and the calculation of debts and apply corrective action if required.
• To develop and maintain an awareness of fraud to help prevent fraudulent entering the system.
• To carry out administrative duties relating to the job, issue bills, notices, letters and other documents as required. To make decisions over which debt to pursue in line with policy and taking into consideration individual customer's circumstances, and progress cases to court if necessary.
• To update the database(s) as a result of Valuation schedules in a timely fashion.
• To make decisions over which debts to write off and to complete the necessary documentation for approval.
• Ensure all necessary information is gathered from customers and any other available source in order to resolve customer queries and to maintain the integrity of the databases.
• Maintain comprehensive records of all accounts and invoices, all stages of the debt recovery process, monitor and review records in order to ensure records are up to date and take action as necessary to address inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

This is a Full time role on a temporary contract basis.

Essential Employment is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy. Essential Employment is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

All our roles may be subject to pre-employment checks including references so please beprepared.

Due to high volumes of CVs received we are not able to respond to all unsuccessful applications. You will always however hear from us by phone if we are able to take your CV forward to the next stage.