Customer Accounts Specialist

Customer Accounts Specialist

**Full Time Salary**
- £34,900

**Employment Type**
- Full time

**Region**
- Merseyside

**Location**
- Watson Building, 4 Renshaw Street, Liverpool, L1 2SA

**Contract Type**
- Permanent

**Job Type**
- Customer Services

**Closing Date**
- 22/09/2024

**Ref No**
- 2246

**What you can expect from us**
- We offer a competitive salary of £34,900
- 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks.
- Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or though the holiday purchase scheme.
- Immediate entry to our Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%)
- A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies
- Simply Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family.
- Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more.
- Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
- Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme
- Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme.
- Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.

**About the role**

We are looking for **Customer Accounts Specialist** to join our Customer Accounts & Money Advice team on a permanent basis.

This role is a home-based role, where there is no daily requirement to attend an office but with requirement to attend site/office as and when required to perform your duties. **This is a Merseyside based role, however will include a requirement to travel throughout Onward offices and neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the business and role.**

The purpose of role is to work within the Customer Accounts team to effectively manage higher-level arrears cases and represent the organisation at court to protect Onward’s income and maximise performance and help to sustain our customers’ tenancies.

This role has a current requirement to be able to travel throughout the Merseyside region for home visits and court attendance and anchor days. However travel across all regions will be required to meet the needs of the business.

**Key Responsibilities**

**Rent and Service Charge Accounts**
- Creatively manage rent and service charge accounts at court level and above; being curious, proactive and always striving to de-escalate to ensure sustainability across tenures within Onward Homes, Contour Property Services and S4B.
- Play a key role in the achievement of the teams KPI’s by taking ownership for personal performance to achieve targets.
- Ensure prompt and appropriate action is taken on all accounts to prevent further escalation. Carry out audits on arrears cases, ensuring cases are managed effectively and in compliance with the Income Management policy.
- Provide guidance to team members and highlight concerns to the Customer Accounts Manager where cases are not being managed. Along with other types of customer engagement, carry out home visits to customers to improve income collection and prevent escalation.
- Approve rent refunds, rent adjustment and invoice payments, and support the team with queries and issues when raised.

**Legal Action**
- Take responsibility for all legal action including attending possession hearings and evictions; ensuring compliance with housing regulation and law.
- Effectively prepare and present cases for court, challenging representations made by customers and representatives to secure the best outcome for Onward, Contour Property Services and S4B.

**Welfare Benefits**
- Provide accurate advice and assistance to customers to maximise income for customers. Refer customers to internal and external agencies as appropriate.

**Partnership Working**
- Work effectively with internal service areas to deliver a holistic package of housing related services to customers and maintain high income collection.
- Maintain and develop strong relationships with external partners such as The Court Service, Advice Agencies, Solicitors and Local Authorities.

**Customer Service**
- Deliver excellent customer service to customers on a consistent basis; offering a bespoke tailored service to ensure high levels of satisfaction and outcomes, whilst adhering to the Customer Charter and delivering the quality of service set out in the Onward Style Guide.

**Skills, Knowledge and experience**

**Essential**:

- In depth knowledge and understanding of legal framework related to debt recovery.
- Good working knowledge of welfare benefits.
- Experience of preparing Legal paperwork, presenting cases in Court and attending evictions.
- Competent user of technology with a clear understanding of its role in communication and driving business success.

**Desirable**:

- Experience of working with specialist income areas e.g., Supported, Leasehold, Market Rent and Commercial.

**Skills, K