Rent Arrears Recovery Lead (Gr 8)

Job Family:
Policy & Advisory Front Line–Professional Knowledge
Grade:
8
Job Title:
Rent Arrears Recovery Lead Officer (General Needs / HRA)
Directorate:
Resources
Date:
11 March 2024
Version:
1:1

Brief Description of job role and department
Leading a team of Rent Arrears and Recovery & Enforcement Officers to maximise income collection and minimise arrears level across all tenancy tenures, whilst delivering an excellent customer focussed service.
As the Rent Arrears Recovery Lead Officer the post holder will be working within the Shared Finance Service, Housing Income & Financial Inclusion Team to administer, collect and recover Housing Rent for Kingston Council.
The Shared Finance Service ambition is to add value, inspire success and this role is part of the Shared Finance Service (SFS) team collectively responsible for delivering SFS activities to realise this ambition.
Representative accountabilities
? Deliver advice and guidance in a broad area of expertise to ensure customer needs are met.
? Identify and implement improvements in your own work area in order to deliver continuous service improvement and improved outcomes to customers.
? Regularly communicate with internal customers to share information and build working relationships to support collaborative working.
? Keep up to date with changes in relevant policy and legislation to ensure delivery in your own work area is effective and complies with appropriate regulations/statutory guidance.
Budgetary accountabilities
? None
Specific accountabilities
Functional Responsibilities:
? To proactively keep up to date with changing benefit entitlement affecting Council tenants and to provide a high level of counselling support & advocacy for tenants on the availability of and how to apply for various additional sources of income, including Housing Benefit, Tax Credits, Child Benefit etc.
? Manage a team of staff to ensure they are delivering services within agreed standards.
? To lead and set an example to direct reports in accordance with the PRIDE values and corporate vision
? To provide cover for the Rent Arrears Recovery Lead Officer (TA)
? Production of clear, concise, accurate and timely management reports together with a high standard of letter writing/communication skills
? Work with & support challenging and vulnerable residents and making informed decisions when contacting the range of support workers which are available.
? Contribute to or coordinate the process of updating policies and procedures for the income & collection team
? Engage charitable organisations where appropriate to assist residents in seeking information and advice that supports them in managing their personal finances
? Promote alternative sources of affordable credit
? To support financial inclusion officers to act as an advocate to customers in order for them to appeal or challenge welfare benefit decisions.
? To collate data and information and carry out analysis to produce trends, conclusions and recommendations
? To ensure that the Council’s targets to constrain the growth of rent arrears & improve rent collection levels are met by prompt and efficient recovery actions in accordance with set procedures and good practice guidelines.
? Ensure staff are trained, capable, managed and supported to deliver flexible financial services - being adaptable in response to unplanned priorities
? To assist in establishing cross-team ways of working, ensure delivery, staff development, maximisation of resources and improved workflows
? To show a high degree of personal responsibility and supervision of team members ensure the following are carried out:
? Preparation and despatch of appropriate system-produced standard arrears letters, Interviewing tenants at both the workplace and/or their homes
? Answering general rent enquiries and correspondence.
? To provide an income maximisation/debt counselling advice service to all tenants in rent arrears.
? To prepare & serve tenancy possession notices, review, monitor and move forward the appropriate process, including the required legal action.
? Act as Legal Court representative for arrears cases requiring legal action; prepare all relevant information and paperwork, to include the court application, attending court for the recovery of rent arrears and repossession of premises/eviction.
? To identify cases where Council’s legal team and/or Counsel is required and liaising with the former to ensure that all information/paperwork is available for any court hearing.
? Attending evictions
Performance
? Consistently achieves performance targets and celebrates success with team
? To develop, update and act on Personal Development Plans as discussed and agreed with the Housing Income and Financial Inclusion Manager
? To take responsibility for own performance, taking a proactive stance to ensure performance meets or exceeds standards required of the service.
Partnership working
? Demonstrate strong and confident leadership of the Shared Finance Service, inspiring team to deliver partnership working across both councils
? Interface directly with external and internal customers to manage delivery priorities, issues and challenges
? Engage in partnership working with our Legal Service for improved recovery and enforcement processes.

? Develop partnerships with financial inclusion, adult social care and adult social care finance team, service providers including Citizens Advice Bureau. Establish referral links to agencies who can give practical support and legal financial advice.
? Actively engage in the organisation of meetings, workshops and other events as required
Role Profile - Details Specific to Job Family
These roles provide a broad service that set policy and provides advice to support and assure all of the council’s day to day activities. They gather information required by other groups to make strategic decisions and translate this into corporate policy and strategic advice. They have little or no direct accountability for outcomes; however, what they are accountable for is the quality of advice they provide to business leaders.
At the lower levels, these roles tend to focus on research and analysis and the interpretation and implementation of policies. At the higher level, role holders set strategy, develop policy and provide assurance across the Council more broadly.
Role Profile - Details Specific to Grade
These roles will have accountability for achieving clearly specified and measurable results either personally or through the leadership of a team. Will be dealing with complex problems and issues within the boundaries of technical or professional skill and knowledge. Will make recommendations on procedural improvements and other initiatives to enhance team performance.
Roles requiring a level of professional expertise to assure a standard or provide expert advice to others.
Person specification (knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours required in the role)
Essential Knowledge and/or Experience
? Experience of working within Housing rent recovery and enforcement
? Experience of working with multiple agencies to deliver services to customers
? Experience of working in a customer focused environment and achieving successful outcomes in the delivery of services that meet customer needs
? Experience in working to tight deadlines and as part of a team
? A minimum of 5 GCSEs (including English & Maths) or equivalent
Desirable Knowledge and Experience
? Experience of leading or providing financial support to change programs and business improvement initiatives
? Educated to Degree Level
Capabilities and Behaviours
? Ability to work as part of a team in a proactive and efficient manner, accurately completing a task first time and be able to maintain and input data onto various computer systems.
? Able to understand the Council’s service standards and core values
? Able to understand and follow set procedures and legislation.

? The ability to organise your own workload to ensure deadlines and service targets and standards are met and be able to prepare information or statistics at the request of the Housing Income and Financial Inclusion Manager.
? When required the ability to help team members complete a task to ensure deadlines and service targets and standards are met.
? Enthusiastic and empathetic approach to coaching, mentoring and inspiring colleagues using high levels of emotional intelligence to achieve high standards of personal and team performance
? Open and adaptive approach to leadership, taking personal responsibility for achieving success for the Shared Finance Service
? Able to deal with sometimes difficult or distressed/vulnerable tenants concerning Rent arrears and possible eviction matters in person and by telephone and be able to compose written replies using plain English.
? Able to communicate professionally with work colleagues, other departments and external organisations etc in person and by telephone.
? Team player – able to inspire confidence and respect
? Use proficient ICT skills including Corporate communication systems (Google, Agresso. Anite etc) and recognise the benefits and the potential of new technology in relation to your service, for example rentsense.To have an appetite to learn new systems and apply them effectively.
To be aware of and perform the duties of the role in accordance with all Council policies and procedures including:
? Health and Safety
? Finance (including code of conduct, fraud and compliance)
? Equalities and Diversity
? The Council's Code of Conduct
? The Council’s Core Behaviours
? Information Security and the Data Protection Act
? Children Act 2004
? The Care Act - Safeguarding Adults
? The Council’s Core Values and other Sutton and Kingston policies and procedures
? Undertake duties consistent with responsibilities of the post as required by the designated line manager/supervisor.

Reporting to the Housing Income and Financial Inclusion Manager, we have an exciting opportunity for a Rents Arrears and Recovery Manager to provide a highly professional and customer focused rent income collection and recovery service in accordance with legislation, the Council’s policies and our customer satisfaction requirements. You will be managing a team of 6 rent arrears recovery officers in a high performing team, whose focus is the collection of general needs rents in the Royal Borough of Kingston local authority. Knowledge of the Court process, Possession Claims Online and experience of presentation at court are essential. A proven track record of results as well as experience of managing rent recovery teams are required to successfully apply for this role.

The full Role Profile is attached: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_zAhtYOuV7swNRYFumCQn2AUs_v20QuN/view?usp=drive_link