Individuals Stakeholder Group
Notes of meeting 6 March 2008, Boardroom, Horseguards Road
Attendees:
Pippa Goldie (Royal National Institute for the Blind)
Nick Jones (Action for Blind People)
Jonathan Catterall (Citizens Advice, CA)
Gerry Petherick (Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, LITRG)
Robin Williamson (Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, LITRG)
Nigel Purkiss (One Parent Families, OPF)
Rosina Pullman (TaxAid)
Frances Corrie (TaxAid)
Jacqui Tribe (Money Advice Liaison Group, MALG)
Hashmukh Pankhania (Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations)
Vyv Bronk (Financial Services Authority)
William Hayden (Legal Services Commission)
Jane Frost (HMRC, Director Individuals Customer Unit)
Stephen Ashford (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit)
Derek Tilstone (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit)
Frances Pickering (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit
Apologies:
Roger Pugh (Department for Work and Pensions, DWP)
John Finney (Stonewall)
Kate Green (Child Poverty Action Group, CPAG)
David Malcolm (National Union of Students, NUS)
Christina Julios (Ethnic Minority Foundation)
Pauline Leyshon (Connexions)
Tony Cohen (Deloitte)
Sally West (Age Concern)
Hillary Spencer (DfES)
Paula O’Dumody (LB Barnet)
Gloria Mills (Trade Union Congress, TUC)
Vanessa Stanislas (Disability Alliance)
Ben Forsyth (SAIF)
Tracey Sisley (Office of the Third Sector)
Jane Hurn (Gypsy and Travellers Group)
Mervyn Kohler (Help the Aged)
1. Jane Frost welcomed the attendees to the afternoon session and handed
over to Stephen Ashford who confirmed that, when the minutes of the event
are circulated and agreed they will be published on the Internet.
Stephen then took the Forum through the action points from the previous
meeting:
| No. | Issues and actions log | Lead |
|---|---|---|
2.1 |
Update for next Stakeholder meeting in March 2008 - Lucy Huddlestone produced a Web Convergence update which was issued with the agenda on 25 February 2008 – Cleared |
Lucy Huddlestone |
2.2 |
Lucy to provide copy of production schedule - See 2.1 above – Cleared |
Lucy Huddlestone |
4.1 |
Discuss customer survey questionnaire with TaxAid Derek Tilstone advised that he has been in discussion with TaxAid since the last meeting and that there was the possibility of HMRC adding questions to the TaxAid customer survey in the future. Rosina Pullman concurred. – Action continuing |
Derek Tilstone |
5.1 |
Feedback reports from previous meeting - Stephen Ashford hoped that the topics chosen for this forum (Financial Capability, Customer Charter), and the following workshops would engage the attendees. He is keen to hear feedback on this more holistic approach to the agenda. – Cleared |
Derek Tilstone |
7.1 |
Expressions of interest for the Disability/Equality Forum - Update
on Disability Forum - First meeting has already been held in January
and the next one is planned for April, there will be further feedback
to report at the next Stakeholder Forum in June. |
Mary Sullivan |
2. Financial Capability presentation – Vyv Bronk (FSA) and Frances Pickering (HMRC)
Due to a technical problem, the slides for this presentation were not
available on the day.
Financial Capability for Stakeholder
forum presentation (PDF 446K)
Jonathan Chapman HMRC Stakeholder Forum
2008-02-11 presentation (PDF 71K)
Vyv began by outlining that the key aims of the National Strategy for Financial
Capability are to make people individually financially able and encourage
them to take responsibility. Financial capability is not related to income,
people on a low income can be very capable financially, and the programme
hopes to help people to look ahead and, perhaps, save for a rainy day.
With this in mind, a large scale survey was set up in 2005 to define capability
and to measure what it means. Five thousand people were interviewed and
the results of the first survey were published in 2006 together with an
action plan. Emergent themes from the survey were then discussed and a link
to Vyv’s presentation is attached.
Francis Pickering then spoke about how the Strategy was being implemented
in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and explained that financial capability
is completely new to HMRC. They have been focussing on three quick wins:
- Direct.gov Kids – a website has been set up which will be delivered on 31 March 2008
- Signposting tool – helping people to plan their finances ready for retirement
- The Adult Literacy & Numeracy pilot – involving the development of a learning resource based on a version of form P91
Frances invited those attending to contribute to HMRC’s developing
work on financial capability. Rosina Pullman from TaxAid welcomed the potential
inclusion of tax in financial capability work which she said had been a
difficulty in the past. She would follow this up with Frances at a separate
meeting. Jonathan Catterall of CA also welcomed the opportunity to work
together.
Robin Williamson (LITRG) welcomed government engagement with financial capability
particularly if accompanied by financial skills in the population.
Jonathan Catterall welcomed working with other government departments as
more can be co-ordinated and people are less likely to be sent in different
directions.
Rosina Pullman extended an invitation to HMRC/FSA to talk to TaxAid customers.
Here are some links to pages that you may find useful on this subject:
Moneymadeclear from
the Financial Services Authority (FSA) website
Building
financial capability in the UK on the FSA website
NB Within the Financial Capability pages there are lots
of other links which give details of the various workstreams and the projects
they are undertaking, so there's quite a lot in there. At the top of the
page where it looks like a street, you can click on each of those 'buildings'
to find out more about the workstreams.
3. Key Strategic Workshop Outputs
HMRC’s response to the Capability Review
Workshop 'Travelling Public'
Workshop 'HMRC Disability Forum and
Strategy'
Workshop 'Multiple Income Customer
Strategy' (PDF 23K)
4. Customer Charter – Ifoema Obienu
Ifeoma stated that she would like to consult with the Third Sector on creating
a Customer Charter (PDF 35K) that works for both the customer and HMRC.
Both formal and informal consultation will take place and it is hoped that
this document will be ready for publication in 14 - 16 months time.
Ifeoma then asked the group: 'How will members use the charter and what
is it for?'
- Stephen Ashford thought that the charter should be a simple statement of what HMRC is about and how we do our business.
- Frances Corrie from TaxAid thought the charter should be for levelling up the playing field – to establish where the grounds are between HMRC and the customer.
- Rosina Pullman from TaxAid –they won’t know it exists so how will they use it? There needs to be thought into how intermediaries are used in passing on this information.
- An observation was made that the majority of customers probably wouldn’t use the charter but the Third Sector might use it on their behalf.
- Another point was that the charter should possibly be tailored down
to customer groups as opposed to one document covering everyone.
Ifeoma’s next question was 'what should we call it?' and there were no conclusions here, one suggestion from Rosina was to wait until it is written before naming it. There were also no suggestions on names it should not be called.
AP – Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) representatives to contact Ifeoma with suggestions on other groups for HMRC to contact on Customer Charter and suggestions on a suitable name.
AP - An update on the Customer Charter will be provided at the next Individuals Stakeholder Forum in June.
Stephen Ashford wrapped up the event by throwing out a challenge to the Third Sector attendees asking them to contribute to future meeting agendas by letting us know what they would like to discuss at the next forum and to let us know what focus will give them value.
AP – VCS Team to canvass Third Sector reps for ideas.
5. AOB
Derek Tilstone advised that the Individual Stakeholder Forum had originally been set up on a six month pilot on the understanding that HMRC report back to Financial Secretary to the Treasury (FST) for a decision on continuing the Forum. A submission was issued to FST four weeks ago and Derek had received a response that morning to the effect that the minister was happy and supportive of the event and that the forum should continue.
6. Next meeting
The next meeting will be held on 12 June 2008.
