About the job

Job summary

HMRC is seeking an enthusiastic undergraduate student for a 9-12 month policy internship role, starting September 2024. Join our highly-skilled team and gain hands-on experience supporting the development and delivery of key indirect tax policies.

This is a unique opportunity to work at the cutting-edge of policymaking across areas like VAT, environmental taxes, gambling duties and more. You will directly contribute to shaping future legislation while building an in-demand skill set. 

We provide extensive training, mentoring and professional support to help you thrive. If you are passionate about gaining vital work experience in the civil service, continue reading. 

HMRC is the United Kingdom’s tax, payments, and customs authority. We have a vital purpose: we collect the money that pays for the UK's public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support. 

About the Team 

This is an exciting time to join Indirect Tax in HMRC. We are responsible for the policy and process design which underpins the delivery of VAT, Insurance Premium Tax, Environmental Taxes, Transport Taxes (Oils and Air Passenger Duty), Alcohol, Tobacco and Gambling Duties, and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. 

We are also HMRC leads on the development and delivery of new taxes, such as the Plastics Packaging Tax. We pride ourselves in being a highly skilled, flexible, confident and forward-looking policy team. 

As well as making a significant contribution to public finances, these taxes make an important contribution towards the government’s wider social, health and environmental objectives. 

There are many exciting opportunities within Indirect Tax across a diverse range of policy development and implementation. Our teams are involved in the entire lifecycle of a tax - from design and customer insight, through to legislation and implementation and ultimately maintenance and continuous improvement! To further improve understanding of our taxes, we are also responsible for producing clear mentorship, responding to official correspondence, and supporting scrutiny of our roles from Parliament or the National Audit Office.

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

As a Policy Intern, you’ll work within a professional environment and have a clear role and responsibilities from day one. You’ll gain vital skills, behaviours and knowledge, whilst receiving full support from both your manager and colleagues. 

You’ll be involved in crafting, developing and delivering forward thinking government priorities, as well as developing relevant technical and policy skills to support your future career. 

Main Responsibilities 

• Supporting the implementation of effective policies and engaging with internal and external partners. 
• Drafting detailed advice, guidance and mentorship to colleagues across HMRC, HM Treasury and external bodies. 
• Conducting research and data analysis to inform policy decisions. 
• Monitoring and evaluating the impact of existing policies. 
• Supporting the Directorates people engagement initiatives.

Person specification

Ideally, we are looking for someone with excellent interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written) and to be confident in their ability to develop their knowledge to provide clear and evidenced advice to senior colleagues and support policy development work. 

You will have experience in researching, coordinating and analysing facts and data, utilising judgement and interpretative ability where issues are sophisticated or conflicting. You will need a flexible approach to dealing with an exciting and varied workload. 

Essential Criteria: 

• Be studying towards an undergraduate degree and eligible for a ‘sandwich’ intern year or taking a gap year between your second and third year.  

Successful candidates will need to be able attend the Liverpool city centre office 3 days a week throughout the whole period of your placement.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Strengths and Experience.

How  to Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a name blind CV and a 500-word Personal Statement. 

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 and person specification outlined in the advert.

Sift

The sift will be carried out against the Personal Statement, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.

Interview

During the panel interview, your experience will be assessed, and you will be asked strength-based questions to also explore what you enjoy and your motivations relevant to the job role. 

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 take place via video link.

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 6 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 - 329917 & vacancy closing date 21/12/2023. 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

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run 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.