Supporting our communities at HMRC

We seek to ensure that our activities have a positive impact on those communities in which we work.

Summary

We work with many different groups, including people who find it difficult to engage with us, to achieve this goal.

Voluntary work

Our staff participate in voluntary activities. We are currently refining the scope of our community involvement to ensure a better fit with our expertise and our business objectives to maximise the impact we have, as an organisation, on society.

Our goals

The CR goals for our work with communities are to:

  • promote a culture of volunteering and engagement
  • support groups that find it hard to engage with us
  • minimise the negative impacts of any office closures on local communities

Examples of Community Activities

Prince's Trust

We fully support staff participation in The Prince's Trust Team Programme. This encourages employed young people to become involved in community projects, working with educational underachievers, offenders and ex-offenders, unemployed and those leaving care, to help them to build new lives. The programme enables HMRC staff to interact with diverse members of the community and provides valuable skills development. In 2005/06 HMRC sent 222 staff - 28 per cent of all the employed participants - on the programme, making HMRC the largest supplier of employed participants to the Prince's Trust. We have now supported over 1500 employed participants on the programme.

Red Box

Red Box is a free educational tool aimed at teaching school children about tax and public spending. It fits with the citizenship element of the National Curriculum. It has recently been updated and is available at 'The Red Box'.

The student online brochure Tax+U

We have developed an electronic brochure for students giving information about tax related issues, whether they have a loan to repay or are a working student or a student parent. See The student online brochure Tax+U for more information.

Payroll Giving

Payroll Giving is a unique way for people to give to charity. HMRC staff are able to make charitable donations that are deducted from gross pay before tax, effectively increasing the value of the contributions. HMRC won a Gold Award in the Payroll Giving Awards 2007, marking the contribution by over 10,500 staff who give to charity via the payroll.

Tax credits

We work with Citizens Advice as well as other voluntary organisations to promote the take-up of tax credits.

BBC Children in Need

In November 2006, 180 HMRC volunteers from Manchester, St Austell and Blackpool Contact Centres, Customer Contact Directors Office and Trinity Bridge House donated their Friday night to answer donation and pledge calls to BBC's Children in Need hotline. Over 3,000 calls were answered at the two sites in Manchester and St. Austell, accepting over £95,114 in donations and pledges and helping the charity to raise a record breaking £18.3 million.

Exhibitions and Advice

We exhibit at up to fifty events a year to promote a better understanding of issues including prevention of smuggling and fraud, fire arms control, VAT, Child Trust Fund, Income Tax Self-Assessment, PAYE and Tax Credits. We also hold regular Business Advice Open Days to support business understanding of tax and other issues.

Information services

Our Road Fuel Testing Units provide leaflets about road safety to people arriving at ports. Seminars on tax issues are provided for migrant workers. We also develop information in foreign languages for ethnic communities.
Work placements

In Bristol, we have worked with BITC's Business Action on Homelessness Group to provide work placements for people who are homeless, giving them support and opportunities to develop skills and confidence.

Working in Partnership

Our local staff are active members of the Preston Community Impact Group (CIG), which was established by BITC in September 1998 to increase the scale, impact and sustainability of business involvement in tackling key social and local issues in areas of deprivation in the area.

HMRC Museum

The HMRC National Museum was established in 1994 by National Museums Liverpool (NML) and HMRC. It can be found on the ground floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, in the Albert Dock estate of Liverpool. In 2005/06 it welcomed 256,946 visitors.

Office Closures

We have been tasked with making significant estate savings, in line with business needs, with minimum impact on staff and customers. We want to manage this process as responsibly as possible. Every decision on the future of an office is made following a full impact assessment, covering staff, equality, customer, business, socio-economic and financial information.

Useful links