Location
Edinburgh
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.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.
At HMRC we have a vital purpose. We help people pay the correct amount of tax and provide financial support to families and individuals. We make sure money is available to fund the UK’s public services such as hospitals and schools, answering around 50 million calls and handling 15 million items of customer correspondence every year.
Our services support customers on behalf of the entire department, dealing with a broad range of different and complex customer enquiries.
This is a great chance to start your career with HMRC and we offer real opportunities to progress and develop your career with us or the wider Civil Service if you choose.
We’re striving to be the best customer service organisation in the UK, and we need enthusiastic people to help us achieve this.
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
Our Customer Service Advisors are the voice of HMRC, using their brilliant communications skills to give our customers the best possible experience.
HMRC is seeking a dedicated Customer Service Advisor to join our team.
You'll be the first point of contact for our customers, providing a first-rate service by telephone, email or web chat.
Your can-do attitude and passion for helping people will be key, as we fully train you to navigate various conversations and provide clear, quick information.
We’ll invest in you by providing structured training, development opportunities and a clear path for advancement.
We are proud of our supportive, inclusive culture here at HMRC, with an emphasis on work-life balance.
The work we do is meaningful, from supporting public services to ensuring the timely payment of benefits. We impact society positively; and by joining us, you’ll contribute to a greater cause.
Role Overview: As a Customer Service Advisor at HMRC, you will be the frontline support for our customers, providing essential advice and assistance, predominantly over the phone.
Responsibilities:
- Speaking to customers on the phone, helping them with their questions or issues.
- Helping customers to pay the correct amount of tax at the right time.
- Taking payments by phone and via our online services.
- Creating customer records and keeping them up to date.
- Using webchat and email to support our customers online
If you are allocated to our Debt Management team your duties will also include:
- Discussing, calculating and collecting interest and penalties for late payments or late filing of tax returns.
(The team you are allocated to is decided when you are successful in your application)
You can find out more about what it’s like being a Customer Service Advisor at HMRC on the Civil Service Careers website .
Watch these videos to find out more about Customer Service roles at HMRC:
Our Professions – Customer Service Advisor at HMRC
Our Professions – Customer Services Group at HMRC
Our Customer Service Advisor role - all you need to know
Person specification
What are we looking for?
No experience is necessary as you will be fully trained, but we would like you to be comfortable talking on the phone and discussing debt with our customers.
You will also need to be comfortable writing up notes, as this is mainly a phone-based role.
We are looking for individuals with the drive and passion to make a difference to people’s lives, and need people:
- With great communication skills, both verbal and written in English language (and Welsh where required)
- Dedicated to providing a brilliant customer service
- With a can-do attitude and a real passion for supporting people
- With the personal resilience to work in a demanding and rewarding environment
- Able to provide information both quickly and clearly
- Comfortable handling different types of conversations
- With an ability to do basic maths calculations
We work a variety of shifts between 7:45am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday, to make sure we can help customers when they need us.
You will work a maximum of one late shift per week (ending at 8pm) and a maximum of 6 Saturdays each year.
The majority of roles within customer services allow you to work from home two days a week if you choose, this includes Saturday and 8 pm shifts.
On the days you attend the office, you will be working in the location shown in the title heading of this advert.
As a flexible employer, we will consider part-time requests. (Part-time is a minimum of 25 hours per week covering variety of shifts. All shift patterns, working days and hours will be discussed with your manager when you join us. Pay and annual leave will be pro-rata if we can agree your request).
However we do require you to complete your training in the office on a full-time basis, usually 6 weeks Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £26,637, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £7,716 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
- Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’