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Sanctuary manages rented and shared ownership homes and supports community initiatives for thousands of customers across England. Our staff help make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives.

Customer Account Officer

Banbury based with a balance of home and office working

£32,043 - £33,729 per year

37.5 hours per week

We have an opportunity for a Customer Account Officer to join our team based in Banbury. The main duties for this role will include handling rent queries and payments for Sanctuary Supported Living properties nationwide. This will include processing payments, setting arrangements and liaising with SSL schemes and Local Authorities regarding Housing Benefit and Universal Credit applications. This is a phone based role with email work as part of a team to ensure arrears levels are within target.

The role of Customer Account Officer will include:

• Processing payments, setting arrangements and liaising with SSL schemes and Local Authorities regarding Housing Benefit, Universal credit applications
• Act as a first point of contact for customers who are at risk or subject to legal action, managing their accounts effectively through all methods of communication to ensure that complex cases are resolved and supported to prevent or assist with legal action, maximise income and sustain the tenancies/residencies of our customers
• Meet all legislative and regulatory requirements for income management activities, ensuring the provision of quality income maximisation advice
• Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders such as customers, colleagues and external agencies
• Proactively manage complaints for service area in line with policy, focusing on first contact resolution and the identification of future learning opportunities, to achieve customer service excellence

Skills and experiences:

• Working knowledge of delivering high quality customer services including debt negotiation skills
• Excellent telephone manner and good communication skills
• Working knowledge of housing management/debt collection and related issues
• Excellent attention to detail
• Experience of administration relating to customer service and complaints
• Proficient user of Microsoft packages including Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams

Why work for us?

We are a not-for-profit housing association, and own and manage around 125,000 homes. We foster a diverse and inclusive culture, and nurture and reward talent. Our customers are at the heart of all we do, and colleagues help make a real difference to people’s lives.

As part of our commitment to making Sanctuary a great place to work, where your wellbeing is of genuine importance, we have developed an attractive employment package. The package recognises your contribution, supports your physical, mental and financial health and gives you the flexibility to tailor your employee benefits by offering:

• 25 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 30 days) plus public holidays
• A pension scheme with employer contributions from Sanctuary
• Life Assurance
• Employee Advice Service including counselling
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Voluntary health plans
• Wellbeing support and tools
• Employee Networks, with a shared interest in inclusion, and who provide invaluable support to colleagues
• Role salary is £32,043 (rising to £33,729 after 12 months, subject to satisfactory performance)

If you're unsure about any details, have questions about the role or want to discuss a need for adjustments, our fantastic talent team will be happy to help you – housing.recruitment@sanctuary.co.uk

We reserve the right depending on application numbers to close or extend the closing dates for positions; we would therefore recommend an early application.

Inclusion is one of our core values. Our goal is to be a diverse, inclusive organisation where our people thrive and meet our customers’ needs with fairness and empathy. We know having a range of ideas and opinions makes a difference. We encourage and welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support this mission. We will make adjustments throughout your application process, in line with Sanctuary’s commitment to our Disability Confident employer status.

Building Equality and Diversity

Sanctuary Group encourages and welcomes applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support our commitment to offering an inclusive environment for our employees and customers.
We work closely with the Home Office in order to prevent illegal working.
Sanctuary Housing Services Limited is a subsidiary of Sanctuary Housing Association, an exempt charity.