Rent Support Specialist

About The Role

What you can expect from us

• We offer a competitive salary of £31,350.
• 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks.
• Salary Finance - access both short and long terms loans, plus provides access to a savings facility.
• 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
• 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.

We are currently recruiting an Early Intervention Specialist (Rent Support Specialist) to join our Customer Account & Money Advice team. This is a 10-month maternity cover position working collaboratively across S4B, Onward Homes, and CPS.

This is a hybrid, home-based role . You have no daily office requirement, but a minimum of one day office based is required at our S4B Office (15 Brunswick Street, Manchester, M13 9SU). Additionally, travel to various office locations is expected for meetings, training, and other business needs. Occasional work outside of office hours as and when required to attend meetings.

Key responsibilities

The purpose of this role is to work within the Customer Accounts team to effectively manage lower-level arrears cases and carry out other key administrative duties to protect Onward’s income and maximise performance and help to sustain our customers’ tenancies.

Rent and Service Charge Accounts and Sundry Debts

• Management of rent and service charge accounts up to court level for all tenures across Onward Homes, Contour Property Services and S4B.
• Assist with tenancy sign-ups, informing customers of required payment in advance and their responsibility for ongoing payments. Where applicable, provide basic welfare benefit advice and liaise with local HB/DWP services when required.
• Ensure customers and former customers are contacted via various methods at the appropriate times to secure payments and maintain high income collection; using technology effectively to make sure we’re having the right conversation with the right customers at the right time.
• Take accountability for handling income related inbound and outbound customer interaction via various channels, working collaboratively with the Customer Services Team
• Play a key role in the achievement of the team KPI’s by taking ownership for your own personal performance to achieve targets.
• Working proactively with colleagues to achieve high levels of performance and seek out opportunities for efficiencies.
• Take responsibility for administrative income related tasks.

Legal Action

• Ensure action taken complies with pre-action protocols and Equality Act requirements prior to hand off to the Customer Accounts Specialist where applicable.

Welfare Benefits

• Provide accurate advice and assistance to maximise income for customers.
• Refer customers to internal and external agencies as appropriate.

Collaborative Working

• Work effectively with internal service areas to deliver a holistic package of housing related services to customers and maintain high income collection.
• Work with external agencies to achieve the best outcome for the customer and the business.

Customer Service

Deliver excellent customer service to our 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/Experience

Essential

• Willingness to develop knowledge and awareness of related housing regulations/ law.

• Ability to take an assertive yet supportive approach to negotiate successful outcomes for Onward, Contour Property Services, S4B and their customers.

• Demonstrates high levels of motivation and resilience combined with enthusiasm, commitment and a curious, inquisitive approach to challenge and seek continuous improvement.

• Experience of delivering high levels of Customer Service.

• Experience of liaising with external partners.

• Ability to adapt to change to improve performance.

• Competent user of technology with an understanding of its role in communication and driving business success.

• Good understanding of the social, economic, and political context in the neighbourhoods in which we operate.

• Excellent written and oral communications skills, conveying information in a suitable and relevant way.

• IT skills – Microsoft office to Intermediate level.

Essential Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE standard or equivalent qualification/ experience.

Desirable

• Relevant professional qualification e.g., CIH.

• GCSE English and Mathematics at Grade C or 4 and above

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.

We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.

In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.

We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.

At Onward Homes, your application will be reviewed by a human who carefully considers your CV, skills, knowledge and experience as part of our recruitment process. We do not use AI to make hiring decisions. If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team on ***email_hidden*** and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.