Our Revenues and Benefits team

Revenues

Our revenues team is responsible for administering and collecting Council Tax and Business Rates income due to the Council. The team play a vital role in the running of the council by ensuring we receive the income needed to fund local services by managing the collection of these vital revenues effectively and efficiently.

Key tasks and responsibilities in the revenues team include:

Billing and Collection: Generating and sending out council tax and business rates bills, and collecting payments. Hear more about this from Nicola, a Senior Billing Officer for business rates.
Account Management: Setting up, updating, and maintaining accurate records of taxpayers and their accounts.
Discounts and Exemptions: Determining eligibility for and administering council tax and business rates reductions, exemptions, and other reliefs.
Recovery of Arrears: Taking action to recover unpaid council tax and business rates, which includes the issue of recovery notices, liability order hearings, attachment of earnings or benefits (council Tax only) and enforcement agents. Hear from Jody about her role as a Senior Business Rates Recovery Officer and more about what that involves.
Customer Service: Responding to customer enquiries, providing advice on payments, and resolving issues related to council tax and business rates.
Liaison: Working with other council departments, external agencies, and enforcement agents.
Inspections: Our Inspections Officers visit properties across West Northamptonshire - inspecting homes, commercial premises, and new developments to gather accurate information. This includes taking photographs, gathering information to confirm eligibility for reliefs and exemptions, verifying property changes, and issuing completion notices. This plays an important role in maximising the Council Tax and Business Rates base and gathering information to on growth to support with forecasting.

Job roles within the team include a Revenues Manager, as well as Billing and Recovery Team Leaders, Billing and Recovery Senior Officers and Billing and Recovery Officers in council tax and non-domestic rates.

The variety of roles make it a great team to progress your career. Experience working in revenues is a bonus, but not essential. There are lots of transferable skills that lend themselves well to a role in Revenues and Benefits.

Skills include strong communication and negotiation skills, ability to work on your own initiative to achieve targets and deadlines, ability to prioritise large volumes of complex work to meet tight deadlines and targets, effective use of Office 365, strong organisational and time management skills.

Benefits

Our benefits team is responsible for administering and providing support related to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support. They assess claims, calculate entitlements, and manage payments for these benefits. Additionally, they offer advice and assistance to residents, helping them navigate the application process, understand their rights, and manage any overpayments when Customer Services escalate any queries.

Key responsibilities in the benefits team include:

Benefit Assessment and Administration: Assessing applications for housing benefit and council tax support, which helps individuals with rent payments if they are on a low income or receiving certain benefits, and for Discretionary Housing Payments, which are short-term or one-off payments to help with housing costs in cases of exceptional financial hardship. The team determine the correct amount of benefits a person is entitled to and ensures the recipient receives the correct amount on time. Hear from Natasha about her typical day as a Benefits Assessment Officer, and what she most enjoys about it.
Advice and Support: Our Customer Service team deal with all initial queries relating to benefit claims, but the benefits team still provide advice to help people around benefits entitlement.

Other roles in Revenues and Benefits

A team of Debt and Money Advice Officers are trained to give advice on money management and budgeting, as well as supporting with debt options and even negotiating payment plans. The team also makes referrals to partners for further holistic support that compliments the financial support that is provided.

The overpayments team collect back any overpayment of Housing Benefit, while the subsidy team work to ensure that payments are going out correctly. We also have a Quality Assurance team, who carry out checks to make sure things are done correctly, ensuring the best possible experience for our residents using the service.

Last updated 03 November 2025