Customer Accounts Advisor

Job Title:         Customer Accounts Advisor

Location:        Bradford

Salary:             £26,250 rising to £29,000 after successful completion of a 6 months’ probation

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours:              37.5

About Us:

Anchor Group is the largest provider of specialist housing and care for people in later life in England, employing more than 9,000 people throughout England. We provide more than 60,000 homes for older people and are a trusted care provider with more than 100 care homes.

We know that quality services start with quality people. We work hard to be recognised as a leading employer and are committed to retaining and attracting the best in our industry.

At Anchor Group we believe in our values. We are Accountable, Respectful, Courageous and Honest. We believe our people should be proud of the work they do making a difference to society and our customers.

About the role:

Working within the Customer Accounts team, you will be responsible for dealing with high level resident arrears and working collaboratively with our location managers and other operational colleagues to support residents and reduce housing debt. This includes managing multiple areas of the country, handling current and former cases for rented and homeownership residents. You will support colleagues to understand our internal policies and procedures, as well as develop your own knowledge of relevant legislation. The aim of our team is to alter the stereotype of a traditional 'income recovery' team by being proactive yet supportive. You will assess financial circumstances and affordability, analyse data to establish financial or behavioural trends, and resolve matters outside of court where possible.

Some of your key responsibilities will include:

• Effective arrears management using our internal policies and procedures.
• Inbound and outbound call handling (establishing consistent payment methods, agree affordable payment arrangements, discussing arrears and signposting for further support)
• Assisting operational colleagues  (training new colleagues, collaboratively agreeing next steps for specific cases and utilising available technology to support residents early and face to face)
• Email/Administrative, responding to queries from or about, Housing Benefit (charge confirmation or overpayments), Universal Credit (verify costs, request direct payments or contributions towards arrears), Local Authorities (homelessness teams, benefit departments etc).
• Account and report analysis to maintain best practice (case reviews, assessing urgency/risk levels for each case and implementing contact/escalation accordingly)
• Providing casework summaries and maintaining regular contact with key stakeholders (including monthly calls with Operations and our Litigation team, as well as providing monthly commentary on arrears performance).

About You:

Experience in arrears management or debt recovery is preferred.

You will have:

• Genuine enthusiasm for arrears management and an understanding of welfare state benefits.
• Effective and accurate communication skills, both written and verbal with excellent attention to detail.
• Flexibility, resilience and the ability to adapt within an ever-changing environment.
• Ability to build strong and effective relationships with residents and stakeholders
• Competent in multi-tasking, prioritising and forward planning with the ability to manage competing demands.
• Comprehensive working knowledge of MS office application, in particular Excel.

If you would like to learn more about Anchor's Housing Service division, please copy and paste the following link into a new web browser https://bit.ly/4d1TKke, where you will be able to find details of typical roles we recruit, as well as example role profiles.

Anchor – a great place to work

Anchor is England’s largest not-for-profit providers of care and housing for older people. Our heartfelt ambition is to transform housing and care so everyone can have a home where they love living in later life.

We’re not-for-profit which means every penny we make or save is invested in the people who live with us, the places they live and the people who work here. That means a better standard of care and customer service, better wages, more investment in training and development and improved facilities.

Our values

Every one of us can make a difference to our residents and play a part in shaping homes and services around their needs.

Our Anchor values of being Accountable, Respectful, Courageous and Honest apply to us all, whether you manage colleagues as part of your role or not.

Displaying our values can influence those around us to do the same. We can all be leaders at Anchor and should all be driven by the same customer ethos.  Our Anchor Leadership Framework helps align these values with the skills and behaviours we demonstrate.

A rewarding environment

From health and happiness to finance and your career, we’ll give you all the support you need.

Health & happiness

• Gym, fitness and wellbeing discounts
• Mental health support
• Flexible working options
• Access to online GP appointments

Finance

• Pension plan – contribute between 4% and 8% and we’ll match it or better
• Quick and easy pension transfer service
• Savings and financial advice, loans, free life assurance
• Discounts on shopping, holidays, phones, technology and more

Career

• Ongoing personal and professional development programme
• Leadership Pathways online learning resources
• Career progression and promotion opportunities

To see our full range of benefits, check out our dedicated being well website Please follow the link or copy and paste https://anchorbeingwell.co.uk/ into your browser 

Celebrating diversity, celebrating you

Anchor is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We aim to celebrate diversity and inclusion in all that we do, as we know that the more diverse our colleagues are, the better care and support we can give to our residents and each other.  

We are proud to have an LGBT+ group for our residents, and also Disability, LGBT+ and race and ethnicity colleague networks. These work to celebrate diversity, address concerns, review policy and practice and empower their members.  We also have an Inclusive Ambassador network to allow all colleagues to be part of promoting diversity and to be an ally to others.

We are a Gold Standard Inclusive Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Menopause Friendly and a signatory to the Care Leaver Covenant, HouseProud Pledge and Age Friendly Employer Pledge schemes.