Individuals Stakeholder Group

Notes of meeting 14 June 2007, Chancellor’s Room, 100 Parliament St

No. Issues and actions log Lead

2.1

Consultative Fora

Derek Tilstone

2.2

Feedback from the event

Derek Tilstone

3.1

Report back on disability and equality

Katie Foreman

5.1

Report back on progress on the strategic topics covered

Various

Attendees:

John Andrews (Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, LITRG), Tony Cohen (Deloitte), Frances Corrie (TaxAid), Richard Davey (HMRC, Powers and Safeguards Team), Justin Douglas (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit), Mike Eland (HMRC, Director General), Katie Foreman (HMRC, Communications and Marketing), Ben Forsyth (Scottish Accessible Information Forum, SAIF), Jane Frost (HMRC, Director Individuals Customer Unit), Adam Goulcher (HMRC, Communications and Marketing), Paul Gray (HMRC, Chairman), Roger Halson (HMRC, Business Customer Unit), Mervyn Kohler (Help the Aged), David Malcolm (National Union of Students, NUS), Gloria Mills (Trade Union Congress, TUC), Fiona Nellthorp (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit) Paula O’Dumody (LB of Barnet) Hashmukh Pankhania (Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations, CEMVO), Judith Pattison (HMRC, Customer Contact, Carter on line), Teresa Perchard (Citizens Advice, CA), Chris Pond (One Parent Families, OPF), Roger Pugh (Department for Work and Pensions, DWP), Rosina Pullman (TaxAid), Hilary Spencer (Department for Education and Skills, DFES), Derek Tilstone (HMRC, Individuals Customer Unit), Janet Tish (Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, LITRG), Robin Tough (HMRC, Tribunals Reform), Paul Treboar (Disability Alliance), Jacqui Tribe (Money Advice Liaison Group, MALG), Tony Verran (HMRC, Tribunals Reform), Simon Vessey (HMRC, Communications and Marketing), Sally West (Age Concern).

Apologies:

John Finney (Stonewall), Richard Jenner (Advice Services Alliance), Christina Julios (Ethnic Minority Foundation), Pauline Leynshon (Connexions).

1. Paul Gray opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and spoke about the key issues facing HMRC with its diverse customer base. The main points from Paul’s opening comments were:

  • HMRC is committed to becoming a customer focused organisation.
  • One-size does not fit all – the challenge is to move from a product based organisation to an organisation which says ‘this is who you are’ and offers a range of services based on individual needs.
  • Large parts of the customer population are relatively unrepresented and HMRC is keen to bring together a group of people who head up various organisations in the voluntary sector and who can provide a collective, representative voice for their customers.
  • Working together with DWP is vital to reflect the needs of our shared customers. Paul was very pleased to see Roger Pugh at the meeting representing DWP.
  • This group can now help to make things happen differently and feed back whether we are getting better and how we can improve further.

2. Terms of Reference

Fiona Nellthorp then led a session on Terms of Reference for the group (attached with the minutes). The main points were:-

  • Key Objectives – report to Paymaster General, PMG in 6 months to evaluate our progress. Derek Tilstone will be arranging one-2-one feedback to discuss what people thought of today’s event and how it might be improved in the future.
  • Terms of Reference - see attached .
  • How the group will operate – whilst the group can influence operationally the way HMRC does things and can feed back to policy partners it cannot change policy.
  • Frequency of meetings and review of members – Child Poverty Action Group, Stonewall and Connexions hope to join us at the next meeting. Minutes will be published on the internet.

It is hoped to have different speakers at future meetings and the aim is to issue a timetable of some of the key areas of development in HMRC to the forum members as soon as possible and well in advance of the next meeting.

Comments/Q&A - Terms of Reference

Comment: Teresa Perchard (Citizens Advice) said she was pleased that we were separating out ‘Policy’ with a capital P where we would not be able to enact change within this group and other operational policy issues. Teresa also said that in setting up task groups where appropriate she would want to bring in CA people with the necessary expertise.

Q: Mervyn Kohler (Help the Aged) asked how many other consultation groups there were and whether the minutes were published on the Internet?

A: Fiona agreed to obtain a definitive list and email it out. Jane Frost added that one of the things we are looking to do is sort out the number of fora and ensure we have the right ones in place and the right people in the right groups.

Action 2.1 – Derek Tilstone to send out a list

Action 2.2 – Derek Tilstone to seek feedback from attendees about this meeting and future meetings.

3. HMRC Communications

Adam Goulcher, who has overall responsibility for marketing, introduced Katie Foreman who presented on HMRC marketing campaign plans with particular relation to:

  • Individuals – Tax Credits, Child Trust Fund, Self Assessment
  • Frontiers
  • Businesses and Agents

Comments/Q&A - HMRC Communications

Q: John Andrews (LITRG) asked firstly, why we did not advertise change in circumstances in April when the change occurred. Secondly John queried to what extent we have taken our Diversity & Equality Scheme into account in making our campaign accessible?

A: Katie explained that Renewals advertising runs between April and July to make sure customers renew on time, but this would be followed by advertising about reporting changes in circumstances.

Q: Chris Pond (OPF) referring to the target group for CTF asked whether our promotional work fits in to ‘Moneyfile’?

A: Katie confirmed that HMRC was aware of the Moneyfile and attends the FSA Group monitoring it. As the project progresses we will make sure we do integrate

Q: Teresa Perchard (CA) stated that CA were currently being funded by HMRC on TC take-up work and she had noted with migrant workers there were many different parties involved and work around the benefits available needs to be more joined up between relevant government departments.

A: Jane confirmed that the Individuals Customer Unit, (ICU) were working with other government departments on this issue and were proposing a migrant workers strategy with due reference to this group for collective input

Q: Paul Treboar (Disability Alliance) felt a lot more work can be done around easy read formats and access to HMRC’s Internet site

A: Katie agreed, stating that some information is available in Braille and large print. We receive overarching advice from the Central Office of Information about the accessibility of our marketing activity and are part of a cross government disability forum.

Q: Ben Forsyth (SAIF) commented that with the introduction of direct payments disabled people are now in the position of employers which created it’s own set of difficulties for our disabled customers.

Q: Sally West (Age Concern) said there were emerging issues in the 50 – 69 age Group with decisions people have to make at retirement and their involvement with HMRC

A: Jane said ICU had clear priorities to analyse the data we get in from Contact Centres, Helplines and through complaints as it is clear that this group is needing help but getting it infrequently. If we can capture this data earlier it will make their experience better and clearly benefit HMRC. Work is ongoing in this area and a final report is being prepared and when it’s received we will share it.

Q: Frances Corrie (TaxAid) found a lot of the queries they handled came either from the 50 – 69 age group or people starting up in work. She had hoped there may have been some more pro-active information from DWP and HMRC to assist these groups

A: Jane confirmed a number of programmes have been initiated with DWP

Q: Teresa Perchard (CA) asked about measures of success around the marketing campaigns and the need for a more segmented strategy?

A: Katie said the initial approach to the Tax Credits work had focused on a mass market approach in order to raise awareness among a large number of potential customers but that newer campaigns were much more targeted at specific customer groups.

Q: Frances Corrie (TaxAid) asked whether we could signpost people from the home page of the website to the relevant pages as it is a great resource if you know where to go.

A: Katie said that all campaigns feature on the front page of the website with a clear link directly through to the relevant information but she agreed that we still need to improve this.

Q: David Malcolm (NUS) advised that there were various issues and a more general understanding to be addressed with students, particularly around national insurance and contributions, as well as the notion that students don’t have to pay tax.

A: Jane agreed there is a lack of understanding about national insurance particularly with those new to work and those coming up to receipt of pension. ICU is doing work with key internal partners within HMRC to make improvements.

Q: Frances Corrie (Tax Aid) thought that PAYE generally was not understood. David Malcolm (NUS) said there were also uncertainties around how repaying the student loan through the tax system works

The points raised from this session were captured by Adam and will be very useful in taking forward future HMRC marketing campaigns and how we might target those campaigns.

Action 3.1 - Katie Foreman to report back on the position regarding accessibility of our campaigns and the Diversity and Equality Scheme.

4. Key Strategic Workshops

The meeting then broke up into four strategic workshops on the following topics

  • Carter on-line filing
  • Safeguards
  • Tribunal Reform
  • Varney report – the need for customer focus

The information captured from these workshops is attached.

5. Summary of Event

Jane thanked everyone for coming and said it had certainly created a lot of thinking about things not currently on the HMRC radar. There were a number of specifics and Jane confirmed we would feedback responses to the group. Anyone wanting to be involved with running a workshop should let Derek know when he rings them for feedback on this event. Jane would welcome as much involvement as people care to give and is very pleased to have had DWP and DfES and London Borough of Barnet at this first meeting.

Action 5.1 - Report back on progress on the strategic topics covered.

6. Next meeting

The next meeting may be held on either 26 September or 10 October in the Auditorium in 100 P.S. People were asked to let Derek know about which of those dates they would prefer.