Housing Officer at Bernicia, North Seaton, Northumberland

Housing Officer (Income)

Ashington

Salary:                            £37,691 per annum (inclusive of car allowance).

Hours:                            37 per week, Monday to Friday

Contract:                        Permanent 

Closing Date:                 5PM on Friday 6th November 2026.

Are you passionate about helping people sustain their tenancies and overcome financial challenges? We're looking for a proactive and customer-focused Housing Officer (Income) to join our Housing Services team.

Role Benefits:

28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) for full time employees
Working from home up to 2 days per week.
Health cash plan membership so you can save money by claiming cash back – over £1000 each year - towards essential healthcare such as dental, optical, physio and loads more.  We’ll also cover the costs of including any dependent children in the scheme – up to the age of 21 or 24 if in full time education – that you may have.
Access to savings on gym memberships plus cash back and discounts on purchases from major retailers including supermarkets, travel, cinema and more.
Generous pension scheme with life insurance of 3 x salary

About the Housing Officer (Income) Role:

This role will involve:

Manage a patch of accounts, taking ownership of income collection and arrears management.
Support tenants through early intervention and tailored repayment solutions.
Conduct home visits and maintain regular contact with tenants.
Represent the organisation at court hearings and support legal processes where required.
Management and collection of former tenant arrears.
Taking incoming calls from the automated income collection system.
Work collaboratively with internal teams and external agencies.
Identify and respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns.
Identifying opportunities for service improvements, make recommendation and deliver changes effectively and efficiently.
Participating in new initiatives that will lead to improvement in performance and service delivery. 
Provide an excellent, accessible, and responsive service to all customers.

Your Experience:

Successful candidates will need:

Essential:

Good Standard of General Education.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal
Experience dealing with vulnerable customers and managing difficult conversations.
Strong IT skills, including experience using Microsoft Office applications.

Desirable:

     Experience of using QL, Salesforce, VoiceScape, or similar housing and CRM systems.
     Experience of working with welfare benefits.
     Knowledge of housing legislation, welfare reform, income management, and tenancy sustainment.
     Experience working within social housing, income recovery, debt management, or a customer-facing environment

 About us:

We’re all about helping people in need of housing.  We believe a good home makes lots of other things possible, so we provide great homes and services that do just that.

We’ve built Bernicia to be a business that people want to be a part of.  We’re one of the North East’s largest and most successful housing providers; building, renting, selling and managing homes as well as providing services to over 60,000 customers.

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first?  

Our people are what make us great. Their feedback has recognised us as a Great Place to Work® certified employer.

We operate within a set of simple, but effective values, which blend perfectly to create our unique ‘Bernicia Way’ culture. This ensures we are customer focused, through working together, respecting each other, being accountable for our actions and demonstrating integrity and leadership.

Please note you will be required to drive for business as this forms a requirement of the role.  You will be required to hold a current and valid driving licence.

For more information regarding this role, please contact:

Kathryn Stephenson, Housing Services Manager (Operations) on (phone number removed).

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than advertised, should we receive a large volume of applications.

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The Group is fully committed to the promotion of equal opportunities and we particularly welcome applicants from groups who are currently under represented at Bernicia.