Revenues and Benefits Support Officer

Grade                        SH03

Join Surrey Heath Borough Council and be part of an organisation committed to delivery through meaningful community engagement and excellent customer service. We have a friendly and supportive staff culture with people who want to help make a real difference in our community for everyone that lives and works here. We embrace a culture of innovation and creativity welcoming new ideas. We support a work life balance with options for flexible and hybrid working.

 

About the Role

Provide administrative support to the Revenues and Benefits team, dealing with all aspects of Local Taxation and the administration of Housing and Council Tax Benefit. In addition, provide support to the Revenues and Benefits team, carrying out any other clerical duties commensurate with the grade of post as directed by the appropriate Team Leader / Revenues and Benefits Managers.

Main Duties and Accountabilities

 Provide a professional customer email resolution service to all Revenues and Benefits customers in a timely and courteous way.

• To ensure Purchase Orders and invoices are dealt with promptly and efficiently.
• To manage list of suppliers and creating new supplier details when required.
• To run and check recovery reports monthly.
• Ensure new payee bank details and changes of bank payee details are correct and that appropriate evidence is held.
• Liaising with Tracing Agents.
• To allocate scheduled payments from Enforcement Agencies.
• To process cases returned from Enforcement Agencies.
• Ensure schedule payments received from Department of Work and Pensions are correctly allocated.
• Ensure Attachment of Benefits are maintained accurately through the Department of Work and Pensions.
• Ensure that Council Tax and Benefits knowledge is current to provide a professional customer enquiry resolution service.
• Take responsibility for obtaining all information necessary to process or resolve a query, only escalating it to others where this is appropriate.
• Attend and participate in departmental meetings as required, supporting colleagues, and sharing information appropriately.
• To promote a culture within the Service which is supportive of the Council’s purpose, aims and values and to take all reasonable steps to maintain good employee relations.
• Participate in Council projects as and when necessary, e.g. involvement in service improvement or undertaking Customer satisfaction surveys and performance monitoring processes.
• To promote team working in all areas.
• Proactively contact customers to discuss with them any issues in relation to Revenues and Benefits matters.
• Proactively update Customers on the progress of their enquiries or service requests.

 

About You

• Numerate/literate to GCSE Maths and English or other appropriate subjects (or equivalent).
• Excellent IT skills, including MS Office, Revenues systems, document management systems
• Excellent written and verbal communications
• To be a self-starter and able to work with minimal supervision
• Experience of working on an extensive and varied workload at a high level with a proven track record of success
• Ability to communicate with public well in all forms, especially by email.

 

Additional Information

• Knowledge and experience of using IT
• Ability to organise and manage own workload to meet agreed objectives set
• Attention to detail
• To undertake any other temporary responsibilities aligned with the overall purpose and grade of the role

 Benefits

We are committed to providing a healthy work life balance for our employees, with hybrid working and other flexible working arrangements on offer. A laptop and mobile phone will be provided for your role if applicable. We offer a generous benefits package including a minimum of 23 days’ annual leave rising to 28 days after 5 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, a generous local government pension scheme, free parking for all employees and payment of a professional membership fee. As well as subsidised gym membership at our local Places Leisure Centre and great savings from supermarkets, shopping, cycle to work schemes and holidays via the My Staff Shop scheme.

 Closing date: Midday 7^th February 2025

Interview date: 13^th February 2025

 

Contact details

For an informal discussion, please contact Malcolm Watts, Recovery Team Leader on 01276 707154, Malcolm.watts@surreyheath.gov.uk.

Our Commitment

Surrey Heath Borough Council is committed to equality of opportunity in employment and service delivery and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community. We are also open to conversations about flexible working on many of our roles, so please feel free to ask us about working patterns during the recruitment process.

 

NO AGENCY CALLS PLEASE