Senior Credit Controller / Debt Recovery Specialist
Educate Excellence – Norbury, South London
Part-time: 3 days per week
Hours: 11:00am–7:00pm
On-site position
Immediate start
Salary: Dependent on experience
The Role
Educate Excellence is a growing education business based in Norbury, South London.
We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Credit Controller / Debt Recovery Specialist to take ownership of our customer credit-control and debt-recovery function.
This is not an accounts administration role.
We are specifically looking for somebody who has personally recovered difficult, aged and persistent consumer debt and is confident taking ownership of a debtor book without needing a manager to provide a daily list of accounts to chase.
The successful candidate must be comfortable picking up the telephone, having difficult conversations about money, negotiating payment arrangements, following up broken promises to pay and deciding when an account requires escalation.
You will initially inherit approximately £16,000 of historic outstanding customer debt. One of your first objectives will be to develop and execute a recovery strategy to recover as much of this balance as legitimately possible within six months, while simultaneously preventing new debt from accumulating.
What You Will Be Responsible For
You will independently manage the credit-control cycle, including:
- Taking ownership of the existing aged-debt ledger and approximately £16,000 of historic outstanding balances
- Reviewing and categorising accounts by age, value, payment history, risk and likelihood of recovery
- Prioritising accounts intelligently rather than simply working through a list
- Making proactive telephone collection calls to customers with overdue balances
- Following up customers who have ignored previous contact
- Securing clear and specific promises to pay
- Negotiating realistic payment arrangements where appropriate
- Closely monitoring payment plans and taking immediate action when arrangements are broken
- Investigating genuine disputes and resolving them promptly
- Distinguishing genuine financial hardship from persistent payment avoidance
- Re-engaging customers who have stopped responding
- Identifying accounts requiring formal escalation
- Preparing appropriate cases for referral to external debt collection agencies or other formal recovery routes
- Liaising with external recovery providers where necessary
- Maintaining accurate records of every recovery action, agreement and customer contact
- Monitoring new overdue balances so today's debt does not become tomorrow's historic debt
- Providing concise weekly reporting to management on money recovered and outstanding risk
The Person We Are Looking For
We are much more interested in what you have actually recovered than impressive job titles.
You should have substantial practical experience in areas such as:
Credit control Consumer collections Debt recovery Income recovery Arrears management Collections Rent/income collection Revenue recovery
You may currently or previously have worked as a:
Senior Credit Controller, Credit Controller, Debt Recovery Officer, Collections Officer, Income Recovery Officer, Arrears Officer, Collections Specialist or Revenue Recovery Officer.
Experience within housing, property, utilities, healthcare, childcare, education, membership/subscription businesses, telecommunications or other consumer-facing organisations would be particularly relevant.
Essential Experience
You must be able to demonstrate:
- Professional experience personally recovering overdue debt
- Experience dealing with aged and difficult debt, not simply sending routine payment reminders
- Confidence making telephone collection calls
- Experience dealing with customers who ignore communication
- Experience dealing with customers who repeatedly promise to pay and then fail to do so
- Strong negotiation skills
- Experience agreeing and monitoring payment plans
- Confidence dealing with challenging or emotional conversations about money
- Excellent organisation and follow-up
- Ability to prioritise a debtor ledger commercially
- Strong record-keeping skills
- Ability to work independently and make sensible day-to-day collection decisions
- A clear understanding of when normal collections activity should move towards formal escalation
Particularly desirable
Experience working directly with external debt collection agencies, solicitors or formal debt-recovery processes would be a significant advantage.
A degree or recognised qualification in Credit Management, Finance, Accounting, Bookkeeping, Business or a related discipline is desirable but not essential.
Extensive, demonstrable debt-recovery experience will be valued more highly than academic qualifications alone.
How We Will Measure Success
This is an outcome-focused position.
Success will not be measured by how many reminder emails you send.
We will monitor:
Cash actually recovered Reduction in aged debt 30/60/90+ day balances Promises to pay converted into payments Broken payment arrangements Disputes resolved Accounts successfully escalated New debt accumulation
Your initial major objective will be to make a substantial reduction in the approximately £16,000 historic debtor balance within six months.
The Right Personality
We are looking for somebody who is:
Persistent without being aggressive.
Confident without being confrontational.
Empathetic without losing sight of the debt.
Commercially minded.
Highly organised.
Resilient.
Resourceful.
Comfortable making decisions.
Accountable for results.
Most importantly, we need somebody who sees an outstanding debtor ledger and naturally thinks:
"How am I going to get this money recovered?"
rather than:
"Who is going to tell me which accounts to contact today?"
Important – Please Read Before Applying
To help us identify candidates with genuine debt-recovery experience, your application must include a short answer to the following question:
Tell us about one difficult or historic debt that YOU personally recovered. Please include:
1. Approximately how much was owed?
2. How old was the debt?
3. Why was the customer not paying?
4. What action did you personally take?
5. How much was ultimately recovered?
6. How long did the recovery take?
Applications that do not answer this question may not be shortlisted.
Shortlisted candidates should also expect a practical final-stage interview involving a debt-recovery case study and customer collection-call exercise.
About Educate Excellence
Educate Excellence provides educational services to children and young people in South London. This role is based on-site at our Norbury centre.
As children and young people regularly attend the premises, all staff are expected to maintain appropriate standards of professionalism, confidentiality and conduct.
Location: Norbury, South London
Schedule: 3 days per week, 11:00am–7:00pm
Start: Immediate
Salary: Dependent on experience
Pay: £15.50 per hour
Benefits:
- Free parking
- On-site parking
Work Location: In person
