SENIOR RECOVERY ASSISTANT

Cyngor Caerdydd/Cardiff Council; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Cyngor Caerdydd/Cardiff Council is hiring a temporary Senior Recovery Assistant in Cardiff until April 2027. The role involves recovering unpaid council taxes and overseeing the work of the Income Recovery Team. Strong communication and negotiation skills are essential, along with experience in a debt recovery environment.

The successful candidate will support a busy team, adapt to high workloads, and participate in training. Office attendance is required multiple days a week for training and support.

Qualifications

• Experience in a debt recovery environment.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Good IT skills for record monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Recover unpaid council tax and business rates.
• Supervise and allocate work to Recovery Assistants.
• Provide training and support to team members.

Skills

Communication skills

Negotiation skills

Problem-solving

Organizational skills

Customer care skills

Education

GCSE standard in five or more subjects

Tools

SAP

Office software

Job description

About the job

A temporary Senior Recovery Assistant post has become available within the Recovery Section of Revenue Services; the post is available until 30th April 2027. Responsible for recovering unpaid Council Tax, Business Rates, Parking Fines, Moving Traffic Offences, and unpaid Sundry Debt Invoices, the Recovery Section is busy, and the workloads are high. The successful applicant will also become involved with aspects of work undertaken by the Income Recovery Section who raise invoices to service users for payment for various council services.

The successful applicant will join a large busy section. Working to tight deadlines, duties will be wide and varied and will include supervisory responsibilities. Office attendance is required at least twice a week – sometimes more when workloads demand it – therefore flexibility is key. Daily duties include the allocation of work to Recovery Assistants and the Income Recovery Team, auditing output for quality and training purposes and providing monitoring feedback to team members. Additional duties include but are not limited to reconciling and balancing financial transactions, providing advice to the team on complex cases and working with Recovery Officers to analyse and review debt recovery procedures, ensuring the maximisation of efficiencies. This is not an exhaustive list of duties.

The successful applicant will also become involved with delivering training to new and existing members of the Teams.

Daily telephone contact with customers is an essential part of the role, therefore oral communication skills and negotiation skills must be well developed.

In addition, the successful applicant will become involved in the day-to-day duties of the Income Recovery Team. This includes liaising with Service Areas to resolve invoice queries, extracting data from SAP in relation to overdue invoices and providing reports to Service Areas in relation to outstanding invoices. Attendance at meetings with Service Areas to discuss outstanding invoices is also a requirement of the role.

What We Are Looking For From You

You will be a highly motivated, flexible individual educated to a minimum of GCSE standard in five or more subjects. You should be in possession of excellent communication skills, well developed negotiation skills and with experience of working in a debt recovery environment. The ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines is essential. In addition, as records must be monitored and maintained, good IT skills are essential.

The position will involve daily telephone contact with members of the public, debt advice agencies, and internal Council departments and you will also be offering guidance and advice on complex cases to Recovery Assistants and the Income Recovery Team; therefore, it is essential that you can demonstrate confident and assertive communication skills and be able to problem solve.

You must have experience of working in a busy office environment and have the ability to work as part of a team. You should demonstrate a flexible approach to work as the duties are many and varied, workloads are high and priority work can change at short notice; therefore an ability to adapt to change is essential.

• The ability to problem‑solve.
• The ability to produce accurate work.
• Clear verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent customer care skills.
• Proven organisational skills.
• A flexible approach to both work and work location is essential, as office attendance will be expected on numerous days every week – on occasions at short notice.

This is essential due to the variation of tasks and numerous deadlines and targets that must be maintained.

As the role includes supporting a team of Recovery Assistants and the Income Recovery Team, availability and willingness to attend the office numerous times a week, every week is essential to offer support, and training to the Teams. Flexibility is therefore an important requirement of the role.

Additional information

This post is temporary until 30.04.27.

Availability is required on several days per week in order to support the Service, Recovery Officers, Recovery Assistants, and the Income Recovery Team.

We welcome applications in both English and Welsh. Applications received in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than English applications.