Income Specialist

Location: Whilst you may be required to attend our Canalside office (Hackney) 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 in North London, such as Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, but also as far as Welwyn Hatfield, Southend-on Sea and other areas. About the Role 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.

• 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.
• 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.
• We are seeking people who can communicate, listen and negotiate on a professional level.
• It is required to negotiate debt collection and payment plans.
• 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
• You are expected to have a good MS Office working knowledge., 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 Disability Confident.

We are committed to developing and implementing or maintaining sustainability initiatives to reduce environmental impact and promote sustainable practices within MTVH. Learn more about our benefits and organisation by viewing our attached document Our promise Here at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) we want to capture the value that difference brings and are committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. We work collaboratively 'Serving people better every day' to educate, support and develop all of our diverse employees and the communities that we serve. We are also part of the disability confident employer scheme. We want every employee and every customer to feel comfortable enough to be their true self and are working tirelessly in the background to create an environment that encourages our employees to challenge non-inclusive behaviours and to be mindful of their own and other's wellbeing. We provide a platform of Network groups for employees to share views, tell us what we're doing well and recommend improvements. We want to create a real sense of community and a workforce who feel that their opinions are valued. Our Networks groups are:-
• 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!

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. 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. Key Dates: Interviews are planned to take place on Thursday 07 November Please note :- we do not currently offer visa sponsorship. What's in it for you? Our benefits include:-
• 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