Customer Accounts Specialist

Metropolitan Thames Valley; Bury St Edmunds; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading housing association is seeking a Customer Accounts Specialist based primarily in the UK to conduct home visits, enforce court judgments, and engage with stakeholders. The ideal candidate will possess strong negotiation skills and experience in debt recovery. This position offers a range of benefits including 28 days of annual leave, enhanced pension contributions, and options for hybrid working.

Benefits

28 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays

Enhanced pension with matched contributions

Life assurance cover

Career progression and training opportunities

Qualifications

• Essential knowledge of legal processes related to debt collection.
• Experience with Housing Benefits and Universal Credit.
• Ability to work under pressure in a target-driven environment.

Responsibilities

• Conduct home visits and court attendance to support customers.
• Ensure effective debt collection through negotiation.
• Develop relationships with external stakeholders, including local authorities and courts.

Skills

Knowledge of debt recovery

Negotiation skills

Problem-solving approach

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Tools

MS Office

Job description

Overview

Whilst you may be required to attend our Trinity Court office (Cambridge) from time to time, the focus of this role is predominantly based on our estates conducting home visits to support our customers. Regular court attendance will also be required. This role covers a large geographic area, and regular travel will be expected to locations such Cambridge, Peterborough, Bury St Edmunds and Luton, Colchester as well as occasional visits in the North London area when cover is required. As a Customer Accounts Specialist, you will be responsible for locally based income collection and enforcement services. This will include all legal processes as well as enforcing court judgements. To achieve this, you will work closely with our regional team and alongside other teams reducing arrears and meeting your targets. Your main responsibilities will include dealing with customer visits and court/eviction attendance in the region. Here you will need to follow MTVH policies, procedures and adhere to its quality standards. Further, you will ensure effective debt collection through negotiation and payment plans and you will provide advice on welfare benefits including Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. In addition, you will work in collaboration with various internal and external stakeholders to ensure that given targets are achieved and income collection is effective. You will be required to develop relationships and attend meetings with several external stakeholders including local authorities, DWP and courts.

Qualifications

• While good knowledge of the debt recovery, legal framework, Housing Benefits, Universal Credit and other welfare benefits and experience in managing cases through legal process is essential for this role, to really succeed it is your values and passion that will differentiate you.
• Knowledge of housing policy and good practice in the sector.
• It is required to negotiate debt collection and payment plans.
• At MTVH our values of Care, Dare and Collaborate run through all that we do, and we're looking for people who demonstrate these behaviours every day of the week.
• Demonstrable achievements in improving services for customers, and in motivating others to deliver excellent services.
• We are seeking people who are able to communicate, listen and negotiate on a professional level.
• High attention to detail with a problem-solving approach.
• Understanding of GDPR requirements and commitment to confidentiality.
• You will need to be able to handle working under pressure and manage your own workload as you will be working in a high volume, target-driven environment. Additionally, you must be willing to work outside of standard working hours on occasions and you are expected to have a good MS Office working knowledge.
• Personal resilience and a high degree of self-confidence and determination.
• Personal commitment to a culture that emphasises continuous improvement through staff development and personal growth.

To meet our commitment to providing safe, high quality services to our customers we will complete a basic background check with the Disclosure and Barring service once an offer of employment is made. This role requires you to hold a full driving licence and have access to your own vehicle as well as travelling for business car insurance.

Disability Confident About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to .

Network groups

• Gender
• Ethnicity
• LGBTQ+
• Disability

Our core values of Dare, Care and Collaborate demonstrate that we are a people focused business, solving social issues by working together!

Working hours

Working hours will normally be between Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00, although your contract will state Monday to Friday 08:00 to 20:00 and Saturday 09:00 to 17:00. Initial interviews will be held over Microsoft Teams Please note :- we do not currently offer visa sponsorship.

Benefits

• 28 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (pro rata for part time) per year
• 2 volunteering days per year for things like helping out in local communities
• An additional 'Beliefs day' once a year to have an extra a day off
• Supported family friendly approach with extended parental leave
• Enhanced pension with matched contributions of up to 9%
• Option to buy or sell up to 5 days annual leave per year
• Life assurance cover 3 x your salary
• Cycle2work scheme
• Hybrid Working - Dependent on job role and department
• Health cash plan scheme for your everyday healthcare needs which you can add your family members too
• Tenancy deposit - interest free loan to help with rental deposits and season Ticket loan
• Access to extensive learning and training opportunities with Wisebox platform
• Colleague virtual social platform with our workplace pages where you can keep up to date with the organisational activity and link in with colleagues
• Career progression across the organisation with our mentoring/coaching programmes, apprenticeships and career planning support
• Employee Assistance Programme- We are committed to the wellbeing of our colleagues and support this as an organisation