Recovery Officer – Adult Social Care

About the job

Salary: £30,024 - £32,597 a year
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Fixed Term/Secondment

As a Recovery Officer within Adult Social Care at Luton Council, you will play a key role in managing and recovering aged debt relating to care charges, ensuring that outstanding balances are pursued sensitively, efficiently and in line with statutory requirements. You will be responsible for progressing Adult Social Care aged debt from 50 days onwards, making timely contact with debtors or their financial representatives to negotiate suitable payment arrangements and respond to related queries. Your work will be guided by the Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Council’s Adult Social Care Income Collection and Debt Recovery Procedures.

In this role, you will handle a wide range of correspondence and ensure that all debtors receive accurate notices of court action, adjournments, payment arrangements and any revised invoices. You will manage the mailing of recovery letters to debtors, financial representatives and Executors, and undertake tracing activity using council systems, providing feedback to the Debt Manager as required.

You will assess and progress cases for legal action, care team intervention, enforcement agents or external bailiffs, monitoring each case through the appropriate stages of recovery. You will also support the processing of amendments, including assisting Financial Assessment Officers in revising financial assessments where necessary, and support the Debt Manager with write-off requests. In addition, you will action changes in payment arrangements and respond to changes in debtor circumstances, including amendments to liabilities.

Safeguarding is a key aspect of the role, and you will identify and refer cases to the safeguarding team or the Financial Assessment Team Manager where concerns around financial abuse or money management arise.

You will maintain accurate manual and digital records, ensuring that monitoring codes and data are updated correctly. Communication is central to this role, and you will make payment arrangements via telephone, email and letter, as well as support individuals in setting up online payments. When required, you will attend court hearings to support enforcement applications.

Working closely with the Debt Manager, you will contribute to the development and implementation of effective procedures, standards, targets and new initiatives to improve service delivery and support positive financial outcomes for Adult Social Care.

Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.

About you

You will bring proven experience of working within a Debt Recovery Team, consistently meeting challenging performance targets while ensuring fair and positive outcomes for customers. You will have a strong background in handling public enquiries relating to debt collection and recovery—face to face, in writing, and over the telephone—demonstrating confidence, professionalism and a customer-focused approach at all times.

Clear and effective communication is essential in this role. You will be able to present complex information in a precise, accessible way, whether communicating verbally, electronically or in writing with service users, their families, representatives and other stakeholders. Your strong literacy skills enable you to produce accurate correspondence and documentation.

Highly organised, you can plan and prioritise your own workload to meet demanding deadlines and targets. You will have a solid understanding of the technical aspects of debt recovery, including the ability to interpret and apply complex legislation, regulations and recovery methods.

With a tactful and empathetic approach, you can engage with customers who may be distressed, angry or vulnerable, using sensitivity and negotiation skills to support positive resolutions. You will also be comfortable working with numbers, with the ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide accurately.

You will bring an awareness of equality issues and a strong understanding of the social, financial and cultural challenges faced by Adult Social Care service users. Your knowledge of debt collection processes, enforcement practices and recovery procedures will support you in making informed decisions and progressing cases effectively.

Educated to GCSE level, including Maths and English, you will demonstrate the professionalism, resilience and attention to detail needed to contribute to a high-performing Adult Social Care Income Collection and Recovery Team.

This is a public facing role so you’ll need to show off your fluency in speaking and writing English.

About us

Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.

The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough

Application Process

Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.

On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.

Benefits

We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:

- From 25 to 32 days’ annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
- Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
- Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
- Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
- Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
- Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
- Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
- Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
- Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
- Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel

How to apply

We understand that job applications take time and effort, but a high-quality application shows that you are professional with a good attention to detail. The recruiting manager may receive a number of applications for each job advertised so you want yours to stand out!

Our ‘How to apply' page has more tips to help with your application: How to apply

Available documents

Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.

• download: Job Description PREF100924 L5 Recovery Officer Adult Social Care Updated 30th Jan 2024.doc
• download: Luton_Values_Flyer.pdf