Guidance

HMRC grant funding 2024 to 2027 – application guidance

Updated 24 August 2023

The application window for HMRC Grant Funding has now closed.

HMRC is the UK’s tax, payments and customs department. which collects the money that pays for the UK’s public services and gives financial support to people. We have 5 strategic objectives.

We want to give our customers a service that is even-handed, accurate and based on mutual trust and respect. We also want to make it as easy as we can for people to get things right. The HMRC Charter explains what customers can expect from us and what we expect.

HMRC has secured £5.5 million for a 3-year programme from April 2024 to March 2027 (£1.835 million per year), to fund voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to help them provide advice and support to customers who need extra help in understanding and complying with their tax obligations and claiming their entitlements, including those who are digitally excluded.

We are looking for VCS organisations to help customers to form or rebuild a relationship with HMRC that enables them to engage directly with us in the future.

Organisations will also be expected to support HMRC with research and insight to identify and reduce barriers and improve experiences for customers we find hard to reach and who may be in vulnerable circumstances.

We invite bids for funding of between £30,000 and £600,000 per year, with a maximum threshold set at 50% of your organisation’s turnover (last audited accounts).

HMRC funding aims

We want organisations to provide free, independent, multi-channel support. Bids should support HMRC’s principles of support for customers who need extra help and include two or more of the following activities:

• help people comply with their tax affairs
• support customers with complex needs (including those referred from our Extra-Support Team)
• support people to be able to use digital ways of accessing HMRC’s services

Help people comply with their tax affairs

We do this by:

• providing direct advice and support for HMRC’s customers who need extra help and cannot afford to pay for it
• building trust and confidence so that customers can deal with HMRC directly in the future

This should cover the full spectrum of HMRC’s work, for example:

• notifying us of sources of income or changes of circumstance
• supporting customers with tax liabilities and entitlements
• assisting customers where we are seeking further information or evidence
• support with HMRC Debt and associated hardship

Support customers with complex needs

We support customers with complex needs:

• by providing specialist knowledge and advice on complex tax enquiries including referrals from HMRC’s Extra Support teams, other government departments or other VCS organisations
• this may also include customers who need third party representation, accessible communication formats and translation, physical and logistical adjustments

Digital assistance

Support customers who need digital assistance to build their confidence and capability to use HRMC online services for themselves by:

• increasing customer confidence and trust when using digital services
• providing digital inclusion support alongside tax advice
• keeping customers in digital channels when they experience difficulties

Who we want you to support

We want VCS organisations to support HMRC to help customers we currently find hardest to reach, who cannot or will not interact directly with us, or need extra support in doing so.

Your organisation must be able to demonstrate you can provide tax and related support services, including support with HMRC digital services to a range of unrepresented HMRC customers, including:

• those with physical, mental health, cognitive, learning or sensory disabilities
• those on low incomes or in debt and facing financial hardship
• customers experiencing communication difficulties, such as language barriers
• customers experiencing age related difficulties
• customers lacking confidence and anxious about making mistakes, or are new to HMRC services
• customers in extreme distress through life events such as bereavement, serious illness, breakdown of a relationship or domestic or economic abuse

Your proposal will need to show how you can support customers in one or more of these groups.

Where support is needed

We want accessible services in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. This can either be through organisations providing UK coverage or community outreach for deprived or remote areas.

Your organisation should be able to demonstrate how you will reach customers and what evidence and demand there is for the service in your communities.

How will you support HMRC customers

Organisations should outline how they are going to deliver the HMRC support scheme, this should include what services they will provide, the number of customers the scheme will support and what outcomes and benefits the scheme will bring.

Organisations should explain how they will promote the service to interact with the customers HMRC finds hardest to reach, including through any networks, or joint working with other organisations.

Demonstrating success

It is important your organisation can demonstrate how you are achieving successful outcomes for your clients – our customers. You should be able to provide clear information and data about outcomes, the impact of your activities, and how they meet HMRC strategic objectives and support HMRC Charter commitments. You should also provide detail on how you intend to monitor and evaluate the programme.

Managing risks

Your organisation should detail any anticipated risks to delivering the programme and how you will mitigate them. We want to understand how you will react to changes in the customer population and the wider socio-economic climate and how you will adapt your services to support those changes.

Costs

We are looking for a good return on our investment, so you will need to demonstrate that your services are good value for money, and provide an itemised breakdown of the costs of your proposal for each of the three years of funding.

Eligibility criteria

You will need to confirm that you satisfy all of these criteria in order to be eligible to apply for grant funding from HMRC.

Your organisation must be one of the following:

• a registered charity
• a voluntary and community sector organisation
• a social enterprise
• a mutual
• a co-operative

Additional criteria:

Your organisation must have 3 years’ financial history in place.

Your organisation must have a turnover of no less than £60,000 per year.

No directors in your organisation to have been disqualified in the last 5 years. No director, trustee, treasurer or anyone in a position of financial responsibility to have had a relevant conviction, such as for fraud, within the last 5 years.

You must have sound and comprehensive financial systems and processes that enable you to track the amount of funding spent throughout the year and demonstrate that you have allocated the funding to the specific activity detailed in your bid.

No aspect of the activity funded by this grant will be party political in intention, use or presentation.

The grant will not be used to support or promote religious activity.

You are able to identify and help customers who have issues related to HMRC services.

Note: Any bids that progress through the evaluation process will be subject to verification of the eligibility criteria along with additional financial/operating information as part of our due diligence process. This may include, but is not limited to, checks of wider data sources and requesting further evidence from you. HMRC reserves the right to fail your [tender submission] should you fail to provide further evidence in any timescales stipulated and/or further due diligence checks identify non-compliance with the eligibility criteria outlined above.

Timetable

The timeline for the funding round is:

• live question and answer session with HMRC Grant Funding Team week commencing 24 July and week commencing 7 August
• application window 24 July 2023 to 21 August 2023
• evaluation 22 August 2023 to 29 September 2023
• notification sent to successful/unsuccessful applicants by end of October 2023
• grant agreements in place and programme begins 1 April 2024

How to apply

The application window for HMRC Grant Funding has now closed. The advert and application window was available from Monday 24 July 2023 until Monday 21 August 2023.

Terms for funding awards

All successful applicants will be subject to comprehensive due diligence reviews and other database searches, including fraud risk indicators.

The terms for funding awards will be set out in a grant agreement that complies with Cabinet Office standards. If your application is successful, we will send you a copy of the agreement at the end of the selection process. You will need to read, check, sign and return this agreement to secure the funding.

The grant agreement will set out an agreed schedule for invoicing and payment, and funding will be paid quarterly in arrears.

How we will support you

If your bid is successful, we will:

• allocate you an account manager from HMRC’s Customer Stakeholder Engagement Team who will be your first point of contact to discuss the progress of your funded activities
• discuss and agree your proposed outcomes and measurement methodology
• review the data you collect by commissioning from you quarterly statistics as well as mid and end of year reports to evidence your outputs and expected outcomes
• monitor invoices to agreed timescales and engage with you to ensure delivery is within the agreed budget

HMRC will arrange to visit organisations periodically throughout the project to analyse the grant spend and establish that you are spending the funds in accordance with the original bid. Please be advised that HMRC will reserve the right to withdraw and/or clawback funding if organisations are found to be in breach of the grant agreement at any point during the programme.

HMRC is under no obligation to accept any application or make an award of funding and will not be liable for any costs incurred by any applicant in submitting an application, including if the funding application is terminated, suspended or amended by HMRC.