Charging & Income Officer

The purpose of this role is to ensure that charges are correctly invoiced/billed and issued to clients or their representatives to enable the settlement of accounts by the required due date.

This role requires excellent customer and case management skills to enable any queries received by telephone or email to be fully checked and investigated internally and where necessary with third parties. The post holders will be responsible for keeping customers, internals teams and management updated on progress through to resolution.

Transactional accounting, including refund processing and account reconciliation across various systems, are also key elements of this important role.

Key tasks and responsibilities:

• To manage invoice production requests received from various sources and systems, producing accurate invoices and statements for despatch.
• Daily point of contact for queries received both internally and externally via phone, email and post, chase responses from appropriate teams and ensure all parties are kept informed of progress where necessary.
• To reconcile accounts using a variety of systems and controls and measures to enable a settlement figure to be produced.
• Administration tasks to enable recovery workflows to be followed, including accurate allocation of unapplied payments.
• To process payments and refunds including processing Direct Debit mandates and the administration of Direct Debits, i.e. AUDDIS, ARUDD, and ADDACS returns.
• Assist with KPI reporting to our Clients.
• Participate in the review of existing processes and support the implementation of process improvements.
• As required, attend and contribute to meetings locally or departmentally.
• To ensure that all work processed complies with Service Level Agreements, regulatory and audit requirements.
• Any other duties as required within the grade of the post.

Essential Skills and Attributes:

• Minimum level of English and Maths at Grade C/level 5 GCSE or above.
• Experience of working in billing/invoicing and reconciliations control environment.
• Proven customer service experience, dealing with individuals some of whom will be vulnerable.
• Good level of ICT literacy, specifically a good working knowledge of the Microsoft applications Excel, Word and Outlook.
• Attention to detail and able to work to a high degree of accuracy when processing a large volume of transactions.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Excellent time management and organisation skills to meet deadlines and demands.
• A disciplined team player comfortable with hybrid working patterns.

Our Staff Benefits:

• free eye tests,
• 26 days annual leave (Fulltime) + up to 8 days Bank Holidays
• Organised company events
• A casual dress code
• Wellness programme
• Staff Referral Programme.
• Access to staff discounts with retailers such as Argos, Currys, M&S, B&Q, Debenhams.
• Liberata will also automatically enrol you into our contribution matching pension scheme.

Security vetting and checks:

All successful candidates must meet the government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

• External candidates: The BPSS includes a basic criminal record check (for unspent convictions). There will also be an Adverse Financial Check (AFC) which will be renewed annually. An Adverse Finance Check looks for CCJs, IVAs, bankruptcies, Scottish decrees, or Administration Orders.
• Internal candidates: An annual adverse finance check will be required.

If you do not meet these requirements, your offer may be withdrawn.

Liberata is one of the UK’s leading providers of business process outsourcing and support services for the public and commercial sectors.

Founded in 1975, Liberata has been serving central and local government for over 45 years as a trusted and reliable operating partner. Delivering specialist business process services where business knowledge is critical at every stage, our highly experienced and dedicated teams care about helping governments get results and achieve the highest levels of service.

Many of our services and solutions are available for procurement under various Government frameworks.