The human story behind HMRC’s delivery of coronavirus schemes

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HMRC executives reflect on how their teams delivered coronavirus assistance from the kitchen table and earned a nod from Goggle Box.

Accountants don’t automatically approve of everything HMRC does. But there has been grudging respect this year for the way it responded to the pandemic, rapidly rolling out emergency help schemes that helped millions.

Two up and coming women within HMRC have played a significant part in the success of these new projects:  Angela MacDonald (pictured), and Joanna Rowland. Both have recently been promoted in recognition of their efforts and the achievements of their teams.

MacDonald was for many years HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, but in August 2020 was made Deputy CEO and Second Permanent Secretary.

Rowland had been heading HMRC’s programme and project management profession since January 2018 and had a big hand in schemes like the Coronavirus Job Retentions Scheme. She was promoted to Interim Director-General for the Covid-19 response in August 2020 and promoted again in November to Director General of Transformation.

Emergency measures

As accountants appreciate, HMRC had to devise, build and launch schemes within four weeks that would typically take it a year or more to deliver. And they had to do it all while remote-working.

This task wasn’t easy, but there was no alternative.

The department came up against a multitude of challenges: working with providers to build the IT infrastructure, working with colleagues in the Treasury on policy, providing GOV.UK guidance for applicants, preparing press and communications and providing guidance for customer service staff. All these new tasks were on top of the day to day challenges HMRC staff deal with, from dealing with customers who need help with tax affairs or continuing to coordinate long-term structural changes to the administration of the UK’s tax system.

“So in terms of project success, it speaks for itself,” Rowland says.

“More than 12 million people were helped financially via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employment Income Support Scheme. We also delivered the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August and implemented easements and deferrals to provide further support.”

The successful delivery of one of their schemes even earned recognition on Channel 4’s Gogglebox. As Rowland puts it: “That’s the kind of cut-through we never have in the normal run of things but one which we will take!”

Real people, real concerns

According to MacDonald, HMRC’s achievements this year demonstrates the ‘flexibility, ingenuity and dedication’ of department staff, who she says, ‘performed remarkable feats’ in the toughest of situations, mostly from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms, while also dealing with the impacts of the pandemic themselves.

“It’s important to remember that we, too, have been affected by the pandemic. We went from being office-based to a remote working organisation like the rest of the country.”

With the majority of staff working from home, the department recorded a new message on the department’s main phone line, alerting callers to expect ‘unusual background noise, like dogs’.

It led to amusement on social media, followed by several HMRC staff themselves responding by posting photographs of their pets who were at home with them.  

“It shows we’re all in the same boat. Our customers’ experiences are the same as my colleagues,” says Rowland. “Many a call has been interrupted by dogs, postal workers, spillages and even our children throwing temper tantrums, so it does show the humanity behind the department.”

MacDonald agrees: “There is a perception that HMRC is a bureaucratic and robotic machine – but there are real people that work here, people who have the same concerns and difficulties as everyone else.”

Beyond coronavirus

For HMRC, as for businesses, the pandemic is not over. But the emergency response phase has come to a close. It is time to look ahead.

So now that Rowland and MacDonald can get their heads up, what will they be working on next?

For MacDonald, the core purpose has not changed: to collect tax which pays for the UK’s vital public services. Yet now they must do this while delivering Covid-19-related schemes as well as making major customs and excise changes in response to leaving the EU.

Upgrading technology is going to be a long-term focus. “It’s a constant challenge,” MacDonald explains. “How to maintain older systems that contain tens of millions of records whilst also making the most of cutting-edge technology. People expect the same standard of service, the same active communication and the same modern and digital service as they do from other organisations.”

The department’s 10-year digital tax strategy to create a ‘tax system fit for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century’.

Digital challenges

Increased use of technology and real-time reporting is very much on the cards. Rowland herself will be working on many programmes within HMRC to ensure the department becomes the ‘most progressive, modern and digitally-advanced authority in the world’. As part of this, Making Tax Digital (MTD) will be extended to Corporation Tax following public consultation over the scheme’s design. 

Meanwhile, HMRC is continuing to open more regional centres across the UK with more openings expected in 2021.

Both MacDonald and Rowland are incredibly proud of the enormous feats HMRC has managed to pull off this year, at short notice and with relatively little time.

As MacDonald points out, she and Rowland have started their new roles at a challenging time. In their relatively new positions, they are helping to bring a fresh perspective, knowing what has worked and what needs improving. “But as we’ve all found this year, the sands can shift very quickly underneath so we must continue to be flexible to the needs of the moment and our customers as we enter 2021 and beyond,” MacDonald concludes.

HMRC’s to-do list

  • Deliver a 10-year digital tax strategy to build a trusted, modern tax system.
  • Extend MTD from April 2022 to all VAT-registered businesses.
  • Extend MTD from April 2023 to include businesses and landlords with business or property income over £10,000 per annum which are liable for Income Tax.
  • Extend MTD to include businesses liable for Corporation Tax (consultation due to close 5th March 2021) from 2026 at the earliest.
  • Open more regional HMRC centres.

Annie Makoff is a freelance journalist and editor.

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