Debt Recovery Officer

What will you be doing?

Role Overview

In this role, you will work closely with customers, internal teams, and partner services to ensure debts are recovered fairly, efficiently, and in line with Cambridgeshire County Council’s Collections Strategy. You will use strong communication skills, sound judgement, and a solid understanding of legislation and debt‑recovery processes to negotiate positive outcomes and support the financial health of the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Customer and Service Support

• Deliver a high‑quality, customer‑focused support service for users of Cambridgeshire County Council and the Debt Recovery service.
• Act as a key point of contact, providing clear, accurate guidance and resolving queries promptly.
• Supply reliable information, advice, and support in response to customer enquiries, ensuring adherence to agreed procedures and best practices.

Debt Recovery

• Achieve timely resolution and payment of outstanding debt in accordance with the Council’s Collections Strategy.
• Ensure all activities follow relevant legislation, regulatory requirements, and internal policies.
• Manage cases with fairness, accuracy, and professionalism, contributing to improved outcomes for customers and service performance.

Service Improvement and Integration

• Support the implementation of new technologies, processes, and methodologies that enhance service delivery.
• Contribute to an integrated transactional approach across Cambridgeshire County Council.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues, customers, and partner services to ensure systems and processes operate efficiently and meet organisational needs.

About you

Are you an organised, empathetic and solutions‑focused professional looking to make a real impact? We’re looking for a dedicated Debt Recovery Officer to join our team and support the delivery of an effective and customer‑centred debt recovery service.

What You’ll Bring

Qualifications / Experience

• NVQ Level 2 (or equivalent) in Business & Administration or Finance, or significant relevant experience. (Essential)
• Experience in transactional processing and a strong understanding of debt recovery processes. (Essential)
• Experience or knowledge of ERP systems and an interest in maximising system capabilities. (Desirable)
• Understanding of adult social care needs and communication approaches for vulnerable people. (Desirable)

Skills & Knowledge

• Ability to understand and interpret national legislation and guidance, and apply local policies and procedures. (Essential)
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to stay calm, show empathy, manage conflict, and negotiate win–win solutions. (Essential)
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to support and work sensitively with vulnerable customers. (Essential)
• Confident in processing financial and service‑related data to support management reporting and service performance monitoring. (Essential)
• Ability to build positive working relationships across services and teams. (Essential)
• A proactive, solution‑focused mindset with creativity and initiative in problem solving. (Essential)

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers