Rate: £25.00 per hour (umbrella)
Term: 6 months initially
Hours per week:
Location: Hybrid (1 day per week in Surrey office)
We are seeking a proactive and empathetic Recovery Officer to join the Income & Assessments team on a 6-month interim basis. This role focuses specifically on the recovery of Adult Social Care (ASC) charges, supporting the wider Recovery Team in maximising income for the Local Authority while maintaining a professional and sensitive approach with vulnerable residents.
This role plays a vital part in ensuring the recovery of outstanding ASC charges, while maintaining a sensitive and professional approach when working with vulnerable residents and complex cases. You'll be responsible for managing a caseload of debt recovery matters, engaging with service users and their representatives to resolve queries and negotiate payments. You'll also work closely with internal teams and external partners to ensure accurate record-keeping, compliance with statutory guidance, and effective resolution of disputes.
Key Responsibilities:
* Proactively recover Adult Social Care debt using appropriate recovery methods.
* Manage a caseload of ASC debt recovery matters, including complex and sensitive cases.
* Engage with service users and their representatives to resolve queries and negotiate payment plans.
* Liaise with internal teams, care providers, and external stakeholders (e.g., enforcement agents, voluntary sector).
* Prepare documentation for court hearings and write-off cases.
* Administer the Deferred Payments Scheme, ensuring legal and financial safeguards are in place.
* Support the Senior Recovery Officer with reporting and service development.
* Ensure compliance with relevant legislation and best practice in ASC debt recovery.
Requirements
Strong understanding of Adult Social Care debt legislation (Care Act 2014) and recovery practices.
* Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with a sensitive approach to vulnerable individuals.
* Ability to manage a high workload and meet tight deadlines.
* Experience working in a local authority recovery or income environment.
* Good IT skills and familiarity with systems such as Mosaic.
Benefits
We believe employee benefits should go beyond just a free drink or fruit bowl. What's more, we believe you should get to choose perks that suit your lifestyle. That's why we've partnered up with the global benefits and rewards provider Perkbox, to offer something for all of our people.
Here's what you can look forward to:
Perks Hub
* Hundreds of global and local perks, available online 24/7
* Free monthly lifestyle perks; such as free coffees, breakfasts, cinema tickets, etc
* Shopping discounts from the biggest brands, all year round
* Save money on everything from the supermarket shop to summer holidays
Wellness Hub
* Easy to follow videos for everything from yoga exercises, to strength training and HIIT workouts
* Mindfulness, meditation and sleep resources, available on all your devices
* Guides to help with everything from anxiety to stopping smoking
* Confidential mental health helpline, 24/7 access to a qualified counsellor
Celebration Hub
Working with us means you're always part of Team BSS - celebrate and recognise fellow contractors, whether they're across the desk or across the world
Company polls where everybody can vote for the winners
Culture Hub
* A single place to find company updates, photos, benefits information and lots more
* Stay in the loop with what's happening by accessing Culture hub anywhere, at any time
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Pre-Compliance Checks for Successful Applicants:
At BSS, we uphold the highest standards of screening and trust for every role. Successful applicants will undergo a comprehensive pre-compliance process in line with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). This includes:
* Identity Verification: Confirming the authenticity of your identity documents.
* Employment History Checks: Reviewing your occupation history for the past 3-5 years (depending on client requirement).
* Right to Work Verification: Ensuring you have the legal right to work in the UK.
* Unspent Conviction Check: Conducting a Basic DBS Check to reveal any unspent convictions.
These checks are crucial in ensuring a secure and trustworthy work collaboration, aligning with best practices used in government and public sectors. While primarily standard in these sectors, our adoption of pre-compliance checks across all roles reflects our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and trust in our recruitment process.
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Equal Opportunities
Business Smart Solutions are a Recruitment Agency - We hire talented and passionate people from a variety of backgrounds because we want our global worker base to represent the wide diversity of our clients. If you're excited about a role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every bullet point listed in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. If you're passionate about working for a role in local government and share our company values, we encourage you to apply.
BSS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. BSS considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable UK law. If you need assistance or an accommodation made due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.
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Armed Forces Covenant
We endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
* No member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen
* In some circumstances special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.