Recovery Officer

This is a Gloucester City Council job.
 

• Job Title:                         Recovery Officer
• Job Location:                   Gloucester City Council 
• Salary:                            £30,518- £32,597 per annum 
• Hours per Week:              37.00 
• Contract Type:                 Permanent 
• Closing Date:                   03/07/2026 
• Job Requisition Number:   14340 
• This post is not open to job share

We are a dynamic local authority providing essential services to the people of Gloucester.

Our main office, based in the Eastgate Centre on Eastgate Street in the heart of the city, is an accessible, modern and light space designed for collaborative working and finding new ways to work. It's all open plan, with a living green wall and other plants without set desks, so you can sit next to someone new every day.  We're always looking to improve how we work and we offer flexible and agile working to give our people a great work life balance.

About the role

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and dedicated individual to join our busy Revenues and Benefits Team as a Recovery Officer at Gloucester City Council.  The successful candidate will be a committed team player who can work on their own initiative to complete tasks and achieve targets.

The role is designed to maximise the revenue and income the council receives from Business Rates, Council Tax, and Housing Benefit Overpayments using a variety of enforcement tools. The successful candidate will be able to negotiate and agree repayment terms that are realistic, affordable, and sustainable, whilst bearing in mind the Council’s Recovery Policy, customer circumstances and other essential financial commitments.

The ideal candidate will:

• Be committed to providing excellent customer service
• Be computer literate with a working knowledge of Microsoft packages
• Have experience of coping well under pressure and dealing with difficult situations
• Have experience of local authority revenues administration
• Have experience of debt collection

Gloucester City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We’re fully committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for our employees as they’re at the heart of delivering our aims. We welcome applications from all sectors of our community. As an employer we strive to be more representative of our communities in our workforce and celebrate diversity.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English

Please upload your CV along with your supporting statement.  CV’s without supporting statements may not be shortlisted (include this statement with your job advert)

What will you be doing?

Duties

• Deciding and implementing the most effective option to recover outstanding debts including referral to the enforcement agent, attachment to earnings, deduction from benefit, issue of pre-committal and pre-bankruptcy letters or County Court action.
• Supporting customers that are vulnerable, encouraging the take-up of available benefits and discounts, negotiating debt repayment plans and applying discretion where necessary.
• Monitor customer accounts to ensure payments are being received and take action to progress recovery as appropriate.
• Assist with the preparation of cases for court.
• Deliver excellent customer service when dealing with customers and stakeholders providing explanations and clarification of decisions and actions taken relating to legislation, policy, and procedures. Signpost residents to additional/alternative support where it is outside the remit of the Revenues and Benefits service area. 
• Issue of housing benefit overpayment invoices, monitoring arrangements with debtors and taking appropriate action to recover unpaid debts.
• To answer and deal with telephone enquiries from customers

General Duties

• Ensure confidentiality and comply with GDPR
• To always provide excellent customer service
• To work flexibly to support your colleagues
• To embrace the standards under the Council’s Employee Behaviours Framework

Skills and personal qualities required

• Be able to communicate confidently with customers, using tact and discretion where required.
• Be IT literate; familiar with Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel & Outlook
• Organised and methodical with good attention to detail
• Possess good written skills
• Team working
• Be punctual
• Experience of working in council tax and/or business rates

Qualifications

A minimum of 5 GCSEs grade 4/C and above including English and Maths, or equivalent. 

Things to consider

The role will require you to work flexibly, working from the office in Gloucester when required and from home.

You will need to complete a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS), you will be supported to do this.

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Recovery Officer Job Profile

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer. 

Applications from any Gloucestershire County Council's employees who are currently on the redeployment register or at risk of redundancy will be considered first at shortlisting stage. 

Gloucester City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. 

Equality and Diversity

We recognise the positive value of equality and diversity and pride ourselves on growing a high-performing workforce that is diverse, skilled and talented; that represents the community it serves.   

We aim to recruit a diverse pool of talent and will recruit the person who is most suited to the job without regard to their race, colour, religion or belief, age, nationality, ethnicity, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, caring responsibilities or disability. 

We are a disability confident employer committed to removing barriers to employment to those with disabilities or long-term health conditions. Reasonable adjustments will be made to the recruitment procedure to ensure that no-one is disadvantages because of their disability. Please contact the recruitment team if you require support or reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process recruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk  

Further information on our commitment to Equality and Diversity can be found Here

If you wish to apply for this position on a secondment basis, please obtain approval from your current line manager that you may be released on a secondment before submitting an application form.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a 'customer facing role' must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.