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This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

Provide a lead role in the operational management of the Revenues and Benefits systems specifically including database administration, access control, batch scheduling, Deputising for the Revenues Team Leader (Specilaist) in amending and entering system parameters, and provide cover for the Benefits Support Team Specialist in certain high level parameter changes.

Ensure that all Revenue and Benefits equipment and systems are running at their optimum and meeting Service requirements.

Develop and maintain a good working knowledge of all aspects of Revenue and Benefit Systems and working with the respective team leaders to optimise the use of interfaces with other Council systems.

Support the Benefit Support Specialist to ensure resilience across all system administration duties.

The Revenue and Benefit Service is a highly motivated and successful team committed to achieving the highest collection rates, lowest processing times and best customer experience for residents and businesses across the borough.

The Revenue Service includes the collection of Council Tax, National Non Domestic Rates (NNDR), Business Improvement District (BIDs). The Service plays a fundamental role in the financial well being of the Authority. The efficient collection of Council Tax and Non Domestic Rates (under the retention scheme) maximises income available to the authority to meet its strategic aims and objectives. The Service maintains an accurate database of liable persons, reviews and decides discounts and exemptions and undertakes a debt recovery procedure through the Magistrates Court, County Court (bankruptcies and charging orders), Fines and Bailiff action.

The Benefit Service plays an important role in ensuring financial support for residents on low income with the aim of maximising income of residents and reducing the risk of homelessness. The Service administers Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction Scheme, and the Discretionary Housing Payment Fund In addition they play a significant role in the welfare reform changes working collaboratively with other Services and partner organisations and the voluntary sector.

The ideal candidate will be expected to provide:

• Operational management of the Revenues and Benefits systems specifically including database administration, access control, batch scheduling, downloads from designated third parties, logging help desk calls for Revenues. Providing cover for the Revenues Team leader in amending and entering system parameters, and provide cover for the Benefits Support Team Leader in certain high level parameter changes.
• Ensure all Revenue and Benefits equipment is running at its optimum and meeting Service requirements. Ensure equipment is properly maintained as required.
• Ensure all Revenue and Benefits systems are running at their optimum and meeting Service requirements including dealing with logged calls that may affect both systems.
• Develop and maintain a good working knowledge of all aspects of Revenue and Benefit Systems and working with the respective team leaders to optimise the use of interfaces with other Council systems.
• In the absence of the Team Leaders, and when required, manage and monitor input and output data files from/to Revenues and Benefits systems and other Council systems, ie creditors, housing, cash, BACS, general ledger etc.
• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge of Google Applications, Microsoft Office, SQL, Business Objects and other query tool language as required and any new technical knowledge required to provide an effective service including trend analysis
• Develop and maintain internal Bailiff software and fully integrating with the Northgate Revenue and Payments system.
• Develop offsite technology for internal Bailiff processes.
• Deal with and answer Freedom of Information requests when required by Revenue and Benefit Manager
• To develop and maintain a working knowledge of the Councils CRM system ensuring it is correctly deployed and utilised by the Revenues and Benefits service.
• Develop a working knowledge of all Revenue and Benefit support systems including enforcement, telesolutions, document publishing software etc

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.