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About the job
Job summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.
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The Student Finance Team is part of Individuals Policy Directorate (IPD) within Customer Strategy & Tax Design. We work closely with Student Loans Company and Department for Education (DfE) to help deliver the collection side of the United Kingdom’s Student Loans.
The Team is divided between two business areas:
- Live Services, who are responsible for coordinating the day to day running of the collection of student loans, including work planning and producing student loans guidance for all internal and external customers including Customer Service Groups (CSG) and Student Loans unit.
- Business Analysts, who are responsible for delivering on HMRC and DfE projects and change impacting student loans.
The team:
- Coordinates the activities of around 100 people, mainly in HMRC’s CSG Personal Tax operational unit, who support the collection of student loan repayments.
- Works with HMRCs Customer Compliance Group (CCG), IT stakeholders, across Government with the Student Loans Company and additional external stakeholders.
We have a culture of continuous improvement on the team where everyone is encouraged to contribute and influence change within a safe and supportive environment.
We are an inclusive team and celebrate and promote diversity. We are committed to ensuring everyone feels welcome, can contribute, and thrive.
We nurture talent, so if you have energy, passion and a drive for excellence, we want to hear from you.
See what it’s like to work at HMRC:find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
Job description
You will be joining our Live Services team within Student Finance team, a challenging environment where Guidance and work planning can change at very short notice.
In this role you will principally provide a proactive supporting role to the guidance lead as well as administrative support across Student Finance Team.
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
- Undertaking a range of activities, ensuring existing guidance is factually correct, in date and new guidance is in place for all external and internal customers.
- Making HMRC’s student loans guidance simpler and faster for all customers. So, you will need to be able to produce clear and meaningful content with a strong focus on user needs.
- Taking new complex processes and language and make them clear and easy to act on, while maintaining factual accuracy.
- Providing input to all current and future HMRC and DfE projects, helping to ensure the safe landing of changes, using project management principles, to gain a full understanding of business needs and ensure delivery is on time and to agreed standards.
- Working closely with HMRC’s CSG operational teams involved in student loans work, ensuring they have skills and guidance to allow them to do their work. This may involve delivering and supporting classroom training, therefore good communication skills are needed.
- Working with key stakeholders to ensure new changes are fully scoped and impacts are understood.
- Being alert to any issues with business-as-usual processes, working with others to problem solve and identify tactical and strategic solutions.
- Dealing with technical student loan customer queries therefore knowledge of Student Loans systems, Self-Assessment and PAYE would be beneficial.
- Providing high quality, efficient and responsive advice, and guidance to the Ministerial Complaints Team.
Providing administrative support including arranging:
- Meetings, co-ordinating agendas, updating action logs, and minutes.
- Travel, crucial to delivering priorities by booking transport and accommodation.
To find more information about Customer Strategy & Tax Design please see the following CS&TD Careers ink: CS&TD Careers website
Person specification
Essential Criteria
- Good written skills, ability to create written content that’s accessible and easy to understand.
- A proven ability to communicate clearly.
- Strong organisational skills, ability to prioritise your time effectively and show flexibility in pace and ways of working.
- Experience of using Microsoft Office software tools including Word and Excel.
Desirable Criteria
- Knowledge of Student Loans systems, Self-Assessment and PAYE.
- Experience of working positively in a team and managing relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
- Experience of arranging meetings, taking minutes and supporting events.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Find more about HMRC benefits in 'Your little extras and big benefits handbook' for further information or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
- An anonymised CV.
- A 500-word Personal Statement.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Your CV is for information purposes only and will not be scored.
Your Personal Statement should be used to describe how your skills and experience would be suitable for the advertised role, making reference to the essential criteria found in the Person Specification outlined in the advert.
Sift
At full sift your Personal Statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.
Interview
During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour and strength-based questions, following the Success Profiles Framework used for all Civil Service recruitment, which will demonstrate the things you do well and/or are motivated by.
This is an example of a strengths-based question:
“It is often said that the customer's needs should come first. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?”
There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.
Interviews will be conducted face to face.
We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process in order to manage numbers.
Interview dates to be confirmed.
A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
Eligibility
To check that you are eligible to apply, review this eligibility information
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers
This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need, so please review the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the ‘location preferences’ section that you are able to travel to.
Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition, or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.
If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, review this information on reasonable adjustments, and contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.
Diversity and Inclusion
At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues and creating an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We’re committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC. We want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential at HMRC.
For more information on how we make this happen, review this information on our culture and values
Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.
We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible after considering operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.
Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.
The Civil Service runs a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Locations
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
Security Update
For more information on the level of security checks we will carry out, review this information on security checks
Further Information
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application/s will be withdrawn from the process.
Duplicate applications for the same vacancy will also be withdrawn.
Transferring into HMRC from Civil Service If you are currently working for an ‘Other Government Department’ (OGD) and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document "Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”, found at the bottom of this advert. Further information on staff transfers can be found on gov.uk
Problems during the application process
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If you think you’ve made a mistake on a short application form (e.g. you’ve ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we won’t be able to reopen your application.
Please use the subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application - 340751 & vacancy closing date 01/03/24. Please note that we cannot amend or re-open your application if you have submitted your full application in the interests of fair and open recruitment.
For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details within reasonable adjustments section above.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
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