Income Collection Officer
Location: Oldham
Hours: 30 hours per week
Reporting to: Income Collection Manager
Contract: Fixed Term Contract (End date 31st March 2027).
Salary: £29,763.99
Improving lives in Oldham
First Choice Homes Oldham has an exciting opportunity for an Income Collection Officer to join our team and play a vital role in supporting customers to sustain their tenancies while ensuring effective income collection across our housing stock.
This is a varied and rewarding role where you'll work directly with customers, colleagues and partner organisations to maximise rental income, provide debt and benefit advice, and help residents access the support they need to maintain successful tenancies.
Please see the full job description at the bottom of this page.
The impact you'll make
You'll play an important role in helping customers manage their rent accounts while supporting the organisation to maintain high levels of income collection.
By providing early intervention, tailored support and effective arrears management, you'll help customers overcome financial challenges, prevent homelessness and promote a positive payment culture throughout our communities.
Your work will directly support FCHO's commitment to delivering excellent services, strong communities and sustainable tenancies for residents across Oldham.
What you'll be doing
As an Income Collection Officer, you'll be responsible for managing rent accounts and recovering a range of housing-related debts while providing excellent customer service and support.
You will:
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Collect current and former tenant arrears, garage and shop rent arrears, legal costs, recharges, housing benefit overpayments and other debts owed to the organisation.
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Manage arrears cases from the earliest stage, making regular contact with customers to discuss their circumstances, agree affordable repayment arrangements and monitor progress until debts are cleared.
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Conduct customer interviews and undertake home visits in relation to rent payments and arrears recovery, in line with lone working procedures.
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Prepare legal documentation, attend court hearings and present evidence in possession and eviction cases, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and court protocols.
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Attend evictions alongside County Court Bailiffs and complete inventories of any belongings remaining within properties.
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Achieve individual and team income collection targets while maintaining excellent customer service standards.
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Provide debt, budgeting and benefit advice to support customers in managing their rent accounts and financial commitments.
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Identify vulnerable customers and work closely with internal teams and external agencies to ensure appropriate support is in place.
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Make referrals to specialist support services to help customers access employment, financial assistance and homelessness prevention services.
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Analyse performance data and identify opportunities for targeted interventions and income maximisation initiatives.
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Produce accurate performance reports relating to rent collection and arrears recovery.
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Build strong partnerships with organisations such as advice agencies, financial inclusion providers and community support services.
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Work collaboratively with Neighbourhood Officers and other teams to deliver coordinated services tailored to customers' needs.
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Maintain up-to-date knowledge of welfare reform, Universal Credit, housing benefits and relevant housing legislation.
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Positively represent First Choice Homes Oldham both internally and externally.
What we're looking for
You'll be a proactive and customer-focused professional with strong communication, negotiation and problem-solving skills, together with the ability to manage challenging situations confidently and professionally.
You'll have:
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Experience working in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment.
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Experience working to performance targets and achieving challenging objectives.
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Experience gathering information, analysing complex situations and making informed decisions.
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Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
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Strong customer service and relationship-building abilities.
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Experience handling difficult conversations with empathy and professionalism.
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Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to prioritise workloads effectively.
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The ability to work independently while contributing positively to team objectives.
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Knowledge of welfare reform, debt recovery, financial inclusion and housing-related legislation, including the Welfare Reform Act and Homelessness Reduction Act.
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Experience within income collection, debt management, finance or housing services would be advantageous.
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A full, clean driving licence.
Why join FCHO?
At FCHO, income collection is about more than collecting rent. It's about supporting customers, protecting tenancies and helping communities thrive.
First Choice Homes Oldham is a housing association providing safe, affordable and high-quality homes across Oldham and the surrounding areas. We own and manage over 11,500 properties and have the highest regulatory G1/V1 governance rating.
Every day, we're proud to make a real difference in our communities. Our work is guided by our Corporate Plan, focused on quality homes, excellent services and strong communities. We care deeply about our customers, colleagues and communities and are committed to improving lives across Oldham.
What's in it for you?
We offer a fantastic range of benefits designed to support your wellbeing, work-life balance and career development, including:
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A salary of £29,763.99 per annum.
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A 30-hour working week with hybrid working options.
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30 days' annual leave - pro rata plus 8 bank holidays.
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Option to purchase additional annual leave.
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Defined contribution pension scheme with up to 10% employer contribution and salary exchange option.
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Death in service benefit.
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Healthcare cash plan covering dental, optical and physiotherapy treatments.
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Private health insurance.
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Employee Assistance Programme offering 24-hour confidential support.
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Doctorline, giving you and your family 24/7 GP access.
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Access to our colleague benefits platform, including retail discounts and wellbeing tools.
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Discounted gym membership.
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Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay.
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Long service awards.
Interested?
If you have the skills, experience and passion to support customers, maximise income collection and make a positive difference in our communities, we'd love to hear from you.
Please submit your application by 23/06/2026.
Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications, so we encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.
We are committed to building an organisation that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. As an equal opportunities employer, FCHO is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective colleagues and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us.
We care that you have a great experience with us at FCHO. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments to make your experience smoother, please let us know and we’ll do all we can.
