Guidance

048/20 New ESF Flat Rate Simplified Cost Option methodology and associated claims process for ESF Technical Assistance projects.

Updated 16 August 2024

Date Issued	07/04/2020
Review Date	06/04/2021

Who should read

ESF Direct Bid Technical Assistance Grant Recipients, ESF Managing Authority Contract Managers

Purpose

This action note is to notify ESF Technical Assistance Project Grant Recipients of a new Flat Rate Simplified Cost Option to be used from Q1 2020 onwards, the action to be taken by ESF Technical Assistance Projects to switch to the new methodology and the subsequent, new process for submitting claims under the new approach. The guidance provided below is supplementary to the Claims Guidance for Grant Recipients published on GOV.UK.

Background

The European Social Fund (ESF) will be using a flat rate cost methodology in order to pay Technical Assistance projects with effect from Q1 2020.

All Technical Assistance Projects are required to submit a Project Change Request (PCR) to change to the new Flat Rate Simplified Cost Option. If you have not already done so, Technical Assistance Grant Recipients should now contact their Contract Manager to discuss the requirements before submitting the PCR.

Please note, you cannot submit your Technical Assistance Claims for Q1 2020 onward until your PCR has been approved.

Once your PCR has been approved and you have submitted your Q1 2020 claim under the new approach, we will then work to process your claim in the relevant timescales set out in our main ESF Claims Guidance.

Action

1. Claims Process

The following information replaces section ‘5.0 Transactions List’ of the ‘Claims Guidance for Grant Recipients’ for Technical Assistance project claims from Q1-20.

Claims Cycle

All ESF TA Projects will remain on the same quarterly claims cycle.

A transaction list must be uploaded directly into ECLAIMS to support each Claim. It is important that information is entered accurately.

The Transaction List spread sheet contains three tabs entitled ‘Guidance’, ‘Transactions’ and ‘Summary’. The Transaction List is designed to enable upload to ECLAIMS.

If at any time you are unsure of the level of detail required after checking with guidance, please check with your Contract Manager before uploading.

Start Setup

When completing the initial actions to set-up the Transaction List, all Technical Assistance projects must select the following:

• Funds - Select ‘European Social Fund (ESF)’
• Priority Axis – select ‘P3 Technical Assistance’
• Investment Priority – select ‘3.1 – Technical Assistance’
• Category of Region – select the Category of Region(s) appropriate to your project
• Cost Categories – select ‘ESF TA Flat Rate Costs’ as the sole cost category
• Other Settings – Do not select any of the options (Procured Contracts, Delivery Partners, Flat Rate Indirect Costs, and Irrecoverable VAT)
• Select Finish

The details required when completing the Transaction List screen in ECLAIMS are explained below along with descriptions on whether these are mandatory fields, and what they are validated against.

Note

a) The fields labelled as mandatory below are those which will automatically be validated by ECLAIMS and if they are not completed accurately, the Claim will be rejected.

b) For data collection purposes all fields must be completed where possible regardless of whether they are labelled as mandatory or not.

c) All monetary figures must be to 2 decimal places; .005 and above, rounded to .01; .004 and below, rounded to .00

d) Dates should be added in with slashes (eg DD/MM/YYYY) as ECLAIMS will not accept full-stops - and will automatically change to YYYY-MM-DD when the ‘Export’ button is pressed.

e) Once the Transaction List has been completed the ‘Export’ button will need to be pressed prior to submission to ECLAIMS. This button creates a spreadsheet which is in a format that ECLAIMS can accept i.e. without macros or any other formatting.

For instructions on uploading the Transaction List please refer to the ESF E-CLAIMS External Users Guidance.

Transactions Tab

When completing the Transactions Tab, all Technical Assistance projects must complete just one, single line of expenditure, completing the relevant columns as per the table below:

Cost Category	(Mandatory) Select the eligible cost as agreed and set out in your grant Funding Agreement. The heading you must select is ‘TA Flat Rate Costs’
Delivery Partner	(Mandatory) Select a value of ‘0’ for Delivery Partners (regardless of whether the project has Delivery Partners or not)
Priority Axis	(Mandatory) Select ‘P3’
Investment	Priority (Mandatory) Select ‘3.1’
Procured Contract ID	Leave the ‘Procured Contract ID’ blank
Supplier Name	(Mandatory – in any format) Input ‘N/A’
Supplier VAT Number	Input ‘N/A’
Invoice Reference	(Mandatory – in any format) Input ‘N/A’
Invoice Date	(Mandatory) Input the quarter start date: Q1 – 01 January; Q2 – 01 April; Q3 – 01 July; Q4 – 01 October. As stated above dates should be added in using slashes – as ECLAIMS will not accept full-stops - and will automatically change to YYYY-MM-DD when the ‘Export’ button is pressed.
Defrayal Date	(Mandatory) Input the quarter start date: Q1 – 01 January; Q2 – 01 April; Q3 – 01 July; Q4 – 01 October. As stated above dates should be added in using slashes –as ECLAIMS will not accept full-stops - and will automatically change to YYYY-MM-DD when the ‘Export’ button is pressed.
Defrayal Method	(Mandatory – in any format) Select ‘other’
Defrayal Reference	(Mandatory – in any format) Input ‘N/A’
Expenditure Description	(Mandatory – in any format) Input ‘TA Flat Rate Costs’
Apportionment Details	Input ‘N/A’, or if a cost is apportioned between more than one Category of Region, you must include details here of how the cost has been apportioned. For example: ‘MD CoR 75%, T CoR 21%, LD CoR 4%’
Total Invoice Value	(Mandatory – in any format) Input amount of ESF (including match-funding) profile for the quarter being claimed. If a cost is apportioned between more than one Category of Region, the Total Invoice Value must still be completed with the profile for the quarter being claimed. The ‘Total xxx Category of Region’ field will then be the fields where you will need to record the actual expenditure amount to be claimed for each CoR based on the apportionment of the cost.
Total Irrecoverable VAT	Ensure this column states ‘£0.00’
Total Eligible Value	(Mandatory – in any format) Input amount of ESF (including match-funding) profile for the quarter being claimed. If a cost is apportioned between more than one Category of Region, the Total Invoice Value must still be completed with the profile for the quarter being claimed. The ‘Total xxx Category of Region’ field will then be the fields where you will need to record the actual expenditure amount to be claimed for each CoR based on the apportionment of the cost.
Eligible for Flat Rate Indirect Costs	(Mandatory) Select ‘No’ from drop-down menu. Leaving this blank will fail validation.
Total - Less Developed Category of Region	(Mandatory – if Claim covers more than one CoR) – Categories of Region (CoR) applicable to the project will have been agreed at appraisal together with the Intervention Rate for each category. If you have only one Category of Region you do not need to enter data into cells T, U and V.
Total - Transition Category of Region	(Mandatory – if Claim covers more than one CoR) – Categories of Region (CoR) applicable to the project will have been agreed at appraisal together with the Intervention Rate for each category. If you have only one Category of Region you do not need to enter data into cells T, U and V.
Total More - Developed Category of Region	(Mandatory – if Claim covers more than one CoR) – Categories of Region (CoR) applicable to the project will have been agreed at appraisal together with the Intervention Rate for each category. If you have only one Category of Region you do not need to enter data into cells T, U and V.

The following information replaces section ‘12.0 Desk-Based Evidence Check’ of the ‘Claims Guidance for Grant Recipients’ for Technical Assistance project claims from Q1-20. ESF TA Projects will still be subject to Desk-Based Administrative Checks to ensure they have submitted correct, accurate and robust claims documents. However, for any financial claims submitted and paid via the new ESF TA Flat Rate Costs methodology, there will be no requirement for defrayal checks on the associated transaction lines at the claims stage.

2. Verification Process (A125 On The Spot Visits)

Verification will continue to use the existing Verification OTSV checklist. However, the Verification Team will no longer require to see evidence of defrayal directly relating to the single “TA Flat Rate Costs” cost category of expenditure during the visit.

All other ESF regulatory requirements will continue to be checked at the visit. For example;

• Anti-Fraud Measures
• Publicity and Communications
• Cross-Cutting Themes etc.

Contact

If Grant Recipients have any queries regarding the information in this Action Note, please contact your Contract Manager.