Rent Locality Management Officer Lateral Move

Birmingham City Council Rent Service has a Lateral move opportunity for a Rent Locality Management Officer. The Rent Service manage the collection of £275 million housing rents and have responsibility for the recovery of former tenancy debt and Housing Benefit Overpayments for Local Authority tenants. Our purpose is to maximise the collection of rent by providing our tenants with advice and assistance to prevent rent debt. We aim to promote self-sufficiency and identify vulnerable tenants at an early stage. We promote and maintain a strong payment culture and maximise income including through the receipt of relevant welfare benefits. You will largely work from home/remotely, however the post holder would have the opportunity to work from Birmingham City Council buildings and would need to attend meetings in person when required. Your tasks will include:

• Responding to and delivering a comprehensive contact service to meet service demand from customers via telephone, visits, online/digital, in line with policies and procedures, legal protocols, statutory governance, performance management frameworks and published service standards to maximise income whilst maintaining the highest principles of integrity in service delivery
• Delivering a visiting income management and recovery and relations service to meet demand, quality and performance standards, as informed by the income recovery escalation policy, customer's requests, vulnerability issues and other campaign work and to ensure that all income management escalation and/or income campaign work actions are executed in line with policy and procedural timescales
• Assuming responsibility for all cases within their functional and geographic area and to regularly review via NEC rent accounts and to facilitate contact via telephone, visit and letter to assist tenants in the resolution of rent arrears and to carry out whichever preventative work is required to prevent the need for legal possession proceedings
• Advising and assisting tenants with Benefit claims, Universal Credit claims, DHP requests, Debt Advice Team referrals and signposting to the relevant support teams.
• To be responsible for the execution of evictions where this is required and to ensure that all pre-eviction and post-eviction tasks are completed
Successful candidates may have extensive knowledge of Housing Legislation in the context of income recovery and will need to have experience of dealing with internal and external customers. Ideally you will be able to demonstrate management of self and own workload, be able to plan and organise resources to meet service demand within specific; quality and performance frameworks and will be able to demonstrate the ability to work well as part of a team, with evidence of planning and organisational skills to allow the delivery of tasks within set deadlines and to effectively prioritise tasks. Successful candidates will have access to and use of a motorised vehicle for business use for carrying out/discharging the visiting function on behalf of the service. You must upload a Supporting Statement via the attachments part of your application. This is required for shortlisting; you need to describe how your experience and skills fit the essential criteria for the role as specified in the Person Specification. If you do not attach your Supporting Statement, your application will not be considered. Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people. We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application. Interviews for this post will take place virtually via video conferencing. Shortlisted candidates will be provided with further information

We welcome applications from people with caring responsibilities and flexible working options will be considered. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken. Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed. Non-UK applicants (excluding Ireland) would be required to hold a relevant Visa from the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).