Recovery Officer - Castle Point Borough Council
- Employer
- Essex County Council
- Location
- England, Essex, Thundersley
- Salary
- £30060 - £32115 per annum
- Closing date
- 1 Feb 2025
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- Sector
- Corporate Services, Customer Services
- Contract Type
- Full time
Job Details

Why Castle Point? Castle Point Borough Council is a statutory body responsible for employing nearly 350 staff, and delivering over 150 council services, both statutory and for the community's well-being and benefit. Castle Point Borough Council aims to provide high-quality and financially sustainable services while prioritising outstanding customer service, transparency in decision-making, and promoting local democracy. Additionally, the council seeks to transform, modernize, and improve its performance, as well as support and enable the communities within its jurisdiction to be strong, healthy, and thriving.
Our values: Trust, Respect, Improving and Learning, and Customer Focus
The Opportunity
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our successful Recovery Team collecting outstanding Council Tax, Business Rates and other income owed to the Council. This role is interesting and varied and we are looking for an enthusiastic team player who can support us with negotiating payment from customers, maintaining accurate records, deciding appropriate recovery actions amongst other responsibilities. You will also need excellent communication skills to liaise with the public, other Council departments, Enforcement agents and advice agencies.
Experience and knowledge of Council Tax or Business Rates and a relevant IT system is essential.
Accountabilities
- To assist with the administration of systems reports and a wide range of recovery methods, including reminders, Final notices, Summonses, 14 day notices, enforcement, charging orders, and insolvency.
- Assessing customers income/expenditure, make special payment arrangements at all stages of recovery, reviewing and monitoring as necessary. Liaise with other stakeholders such as Peabody, Stepchange and CAB.
- Responding to enquiries by letter, email, and in person, as required with a preference to digital communications where available.
- Instigating and reviewing Attachment of Earning Orders and deductions from Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, Earnings Support Allowance or Universal Credit, ensuring payments are received and allocated correctly.
- Providing support both before and at Court or Valuation Tribunal, preparing paperwork or evidence and dealing with customer queries and making payment arrangements.
- Tracing absconded customers, using internal and third party systems.
- Identifying irrecoverable debts, undertake all relevant checks, and prepare documentation to recommend write off.
- Through ongoing training, maintain a detailed knowledge of procedures, legislation and case-law, relating to the recovery and enforcement of debts.
- Ensuring accurate case selection for Enforcement, liaising with the Enforcement Agents, and updating both our and third party systems.
- Checking and actioning monthly reports at various stages of recovery to maximise collections.
The Experience You Will Bring
To be successful in this role you must:
- Have experience and knowledge of Council Tax or Business Rates
- Have experience of Microsoft Office and a revenues system, ideally but not limited to Civica Open Revenues
- Have good verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to support and negotiate with customers and stakeholders in calm, sensitive way in difficult situations
- Have the ability to demonstrate awareness and understanding of equal opportunities and other people's behaviour, physical, social and welfare needs
Castle Point Borough Council is proud to be a disability confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.
Castle Point Borough Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
When completing the statement of suitability please refer to the full job description and how you meet each of the criteria.
Company
Why Essex?
Essex County Council covers 1,300 square miles from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary. From the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career.
We celebrate difference and work to ensure that no one is disadvantaged when accessing services, employment or public life in Essex. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interviewing all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. We’re also committed to interviewing all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
Free to deliver big
We recruit creative, ambitious, talented people, and free them up to think – and deliver – big.
We’ve made substantial changes in recent years, reorganising how we’re structured and how we work, so we can protect the most vulnerable and enable our economy to grow. Join us and you’ll be trusted to take control, manage change and make a lasting impact. You’ll be able to call upon external partners and suppliers to help you deliver. More importantly, talented, trailblazing colleagues – including many industry-leaders – will be right by your side to share ideas, knowledge and experience.
Find out how Essex County Council is changing, and how you’ll fit in.
Employee Recognition & Engagement
Here are some of the things we have in place to give our employees a sense of belonging, involvement and recognition.
Employee Networks:
- Ethnically Diverse Employee Network (EDEN)
- Carers Forum
- Christian Network
- Disabled Employees Network
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Network
- Parents Network
- Women’s Network
- Men’s Network
- Young People and Apprentice Network.
You Make The Difference’ Awards - giving employees the opportunity to nominate individuals or teams who go above and beyond for our residents.
Employee Surveys – where we listen to the voices of our people and take action on what we hear.
Employee Panels – giving you the opportunity to feed back on a range of policies and initiatives, network with colleagues and influence far-reaching changes.
Learning and Development
We have developed diverse learning opportunities to support our people to grow both personally and professionally. This includes:
- A large suite of online training and tools
- Dedicated learning events such as ‘LearnFest’ – our flagship annual celebration of learning
- Apprenticeships for both new and existing colleagues
- Financial support to achieve professional qualifications
- Support from subject matter experts
- The opportunity to share your own expertise to up-skill colleagues
- Leadership and executive coaching
- Learning on demand
- Career pathways
Rewards and Benefits
- Family Friendly flexible Working
- Generous holiday and special leave allowances (including the option to purchase extra holiday)
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Life Assurance of three times annual salary
- Volunteering leave (up to 4 days per year)
- Employee wellbeing and counselling
- Travel discounts & season ticket loans
- Learning and Development opportunities/coaching & mentoring
- Payment of professional fees for approved professions
- Eye care vouchers
- Lease car scheme (dependent on business needs)
- Up to £8,000 relocation package (subject to terms and conditions)
You’ll also have access to MyReward, a unique platform for Essex County Council employees to gain various discounts and savings.
Your Wellbeing
At Essex County Council we are committed to supporting the wellbeing of our people. We work closely with our employees to provide wellbeing support based on their needs. We strive to enable the right environment, conditions, and behaviours so individual and organisational wellbeing is embedded in everything we do.
Join us and get Inspired to do More.
- Website
- https://workingforessex.com/
- Telephone
- 0845 743 0430
- Location
-
County Hall
Market Road
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 1QH
United Kingdom
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