#HMRCAdvice
Welcome to your HMRC Advice Service Guide
Please keep this guide to hand throughout the duration of the project and share with any colleagues who may also be involved with its delivery.Introduction
Tinder Foundation has been successful in securing funding for a 3 year programme with HMRC to provide high-quality advice surgeries within England's most deprived areas, reaching 10,500 vulnerable and socially marginalised people in Year 1. While the service will focus on socially excluded people, we are especially interested in hearing from centres that specialise in one of the following groups:
● Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups and/or non-native English speakers
● People with disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health issues, and their carers
● People in rural communities
● Sole traders and micro-businesses who have low digital skills and are unable to afford the support of accountancy services
The services that HMRC particularly want people to be supported to use are:
● Tax (PAYE and Self-Assessment)
● Child Tax Credits
● Child Benefit
● Working Tax Credits
While this project does not focus primarily on digital inclusion as many of Tinder Foundation’s projects do, there are elements that interlink. For example, increasingly elements of HMRC services are becoming accessible online, and gov.uk is a valuable information source for your clients when it comes to understanding their own entitlements to HMRC benefits such as Child and Working Tax Credits and Child Benefit, or their obligations in terms of tax and National Insurance.
Primarily though, the project’s aim is to help people become more confident users of HMRC’s services, whether digitally or through more traditional channels. In this guide, we will tell you everything you need to know about the project so that you can get on and do just that.
And don’t forget - if you ever have any queries you can always drop us a line at or call 0114 349 1666
Funding
Your grant will be paid in quarterly instalments throughout the year. Except for the initial instalment, these payments will be made subject to performance, which means it’s vital that you update the CaptureIT system regularly with your activity as that’s how we know what you have achieved. See the CaptureIT section below for more details on how to do that.
The grants will be paid in the following schedule:
● 25% - April 2016
● 25% - July 2016
● 25% - October 2016
● 25% - March 2017
You will have one of three contract sizes. These are:
Contract Size / £7,500 (large) / £5,000 (medium) / £2,500 (small)Number of people supported / 300 / 200 / 100
Timescales and milestones
Date / Activity30th March 2016 / Sheffield training day
1st April 2016 / Project delivery begins
5th April 2016 / London training day
31 March 2017 / Project delivery ends
We may also inform you of events or training that you can participate in throughout the project.
Communications
Throughout the project your main contact at Tinder Foundation will be Funding Manager Holly Bagnall-Bell, who can be reached on if you’re experiencing any problems or need some guidance. You’ll receive regular performance calls from Funding & Performance Manager Holly Bagnall-Bell and may also hear from Project Coordinator Rob Shapiro and Research Manager Laurence Piercy at different times during the project.
You’ll also receive quarterly newsletters from Tinder Foundation, giving you an update on the latest changes to HMRC’s online services and project news.
CaptureIT
CaptureIT is the data collection tool hosted on Learn My Way, into which you enter the details of people you have supported during the project so that we know what you’ve delivered. It’s really important that you keep this updated on a regular basis, because if we don’t know what you’ve delivered then we can’t pay your next installment of grant funding.
The CaptureIT system is really easy to use. To access it, you need to make sure you have a Learn My Way account that:
● has tutor access
● is registered to the centre ID of the centre that is taking part in the project
If your account doesn’t have tutor access then get in touch with and we can get that set up.
There will be some very minor changes to the way in which the system works before the project starts, but you can learn how CaptureIT works by watching this quick video. Of course, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Maintaining confidentiality
Due to the sensitive nature of the information that you will be dealing with and inputting into the CaptureIt tool on learnmyway.com it’s important to us to be really clear about how that information will be used.
Any data you enter into the data collection tool will:
● not be passed on to any third parties without yours or your client's prior consent
● be anonymised when used in any internal or external reports
● not be used to contact your clients directly. Any requests to speak to your clients for research or reporting purposes will be directed to you, and you are free to deny these requests
We want to ensure that you feel really confident that the data you provide to us is safe and secure, so if you have any questions about this aspect of the project please don’t hesitate to drop us a line.
Training
As you will have noticed, we have two training events. You must attend one of these, as they will provide a valuable opportunity to learn about the project, network with other participating centres and for you to ask questions and make sure you fully understand your role.
The face to face training events will be held on:
● Sheffield - 30th March 10:30-14:00 - St Mary’s Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield, S2 4QZ
● London - 5th April 10:30-14:00 - Broadway House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NQ
Once you know which event you would like to attend, you can sign up using this link.
Do take a look at the other training available on www.ukonlinecentres.com/training and get in contact if you feel you have any further training needs which aren’t covered in this section.
Social media
Throughout the project, we urge you to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc.) to demonstrate activity to funders, partners and the wider public.
For anything relating to this project we’re using the hashtag #HMRCAdvice across all social media channels. There are also generic hashtags that can be used if appropriate including #FinancialInclusion #TaxCredits #ChildBenefit #NationalInsurance #Tax or #SmallBiz
Funders & Partners:
Twitter@TinderFdn
@HMRCcustomers (Service to help with general queries about HMRC products and services)
@HMRCgovuk (Official news and information from HM Revenue & Customs.) / LinkedIn
Tinder Foundation
HMRC
HMRC
If you’re on twitter, why not tweet us when you get your project started?
What should I do on social media?
● Share photos of learners or sessions that are taking place, quick status updates, or links to any web pages, videos or other content relevant to the ongoing project.
● Keep an eye on the hashtag and on @TinderFdn to see how the project is progressing and retweet/reshare anything that interests you or you think would interest your followers.
● Share your thoughts about why this project is important to your organisation or what difference it’s making in your community.
● Share your thoughts from meetings and training events you attend around the project.
Case studies and blog posts
Tinder Foundation will be producing a number of case studies for the HMRC Advice Service project, to publish online, in project reports and to share with funders. We need these to demonstrate the impact of the project and will be approaching some project participants in order to produce these.
Tinder Foundation may also approach some centres during this time to write a blog post for the Tinder Foundation website or other sites. We’ll provide extra guidance if we ask you to do this, and will work closely with you on what content is required.
If you have any ideas for blog posts or case studies, please get in contact with Holly Bagnall-Bell. Similarly if you think you would like additional information for future project guides, then please let us know so we can incorporate your ideas in future editions.
Contact Tinder Foundation on 0114 349 1666Good luck with your project!
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