29773 - Technical Caseworker (Tax)

Background:

HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales, and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. Every year, we handle more than 2 million criminal cases, 1.8 million civil claims, 150,000 family law disputes, almost 800,000 tribunal cases and we collect over £440m of fines imposed by courts.

Our 15,000 people working in around 349 courts, tribunals and national centres, play a vital role in maintaining the rule of law, supporting access to justice for all, and providing support to an independent judiciary in the administration of justice.

HMCTS is in the second year of our ambitious six-year programme to reform the courts and tribunals system. Together, we are changing how we work to ensure that our justice system continues to lead and inspire the world, and works better for everyone, from judges and legal professionals, to witnesses, litigants and the vulnerable victims of crime.

Role Overview:

The First-tier Tribunal (Tax), is based at the Hagley Road Birmingham. It is the HMCTS national centre for the processing of cases in the First-tier Tribunal (Tax) - from issue of the case through to hearing, final determination and post hearing work. The team handle a wide range of cases from relatively straightforward appeals against fixed £100 late filing penalties, or duties on purchases or gifts from overseas to complex appeals involving hundreds of millions of pounds. The team have a good reputation for improving services to customers through continuous improvement, working with colleagues and stakeholder.

As a Technical caseworker you will be part of a small multi-grade team known as the Technical Team, which includes the Tax Appeals Registrar and Tribunal Caseworkers. The Technical Team provides technical support to the rest of the office and judiciary and also deals directly with the parties involved in an appeal.

Your duties will primarily concern the categorisation and early case management of tax, customs and duties appeals in the paper, basic and low maintenance categories while working within a small multi grade team. There will be scope to use and transfer existing appeals work skills and to broaden your knowledge of appeals work into higher category and tax cases.

The key purpose of the role is to

• Ensure that new appeals are efficiently allocated to the right track to ensure appropriate and efficient future handling – ‘categorisation’, ensuring that appeals proceed to completion without delay.
• Identify and advise staff, technical team members and judiciary on individual paper and basic cases within judicial guidelines or as agreed with the Registrar.
• Be responsible for identifying individual appeals needing bespoke case management or members of potential groups of appeals.
• Work with others to achieve a reduction in returned appeal rates. The Technical Caseworker will also monitor appeal rejection rates and extension of time requests to improve customer service.
• Provide guidance particularly to operations staff, playing a role in mentoring and developing standards within the First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) Teams as well as dealing with individual appeals and appellants/respondents and their representatives.
• Establish effective and efficient partnerships with the Registrar, Tribunal Case Workers and the tax judges, and carry out any delegated functions, either laid down in the Rules or specified in judicial Practice Directions.
• Effectively communicate with parties to appeals on paper, basic and some low maintenance standard category cases to resolve any queries or issues arising by telephone and bespoke written communication.

Key activities will include:

Administration

• To monitor, compile and analyse appeal rejection rates and to prepare reports.
• To monitor, compile and analyse Extension of Time requests on standard category appeals and to prepare reports.
• To support the Registrar, Tribunal Caseworkers, Case Creation Team Leader and Judiciary in the implementation of their case management roles.
• To review systems, identify weaknesses and work with others in the FTT to improve processes and to highlight to the Registrar and Senior Management when issues of compliance to directions are highlighted and to take remedial action as appropriate or make recommendations to for improvements.

Operations

• To work with others to reduce and prevent rejections of notices of appeal.
• To work with others to improve the acceptance rate statistics.
• To case manage appeals and applications and ensure compliance by parties of directions made by the Tribunal.
• Checking with parties as to readiness for hearings as directed.
• To identify and review old cases and initiate action to progress them.
• To refer problems with pre-hearing preparation to Registrar / Judiciary as appropriate.

Processing and managing casework

• Work with staff to ensure that casework is appropriately managed, providing information / advice where process deviations have occurred.
• To identify training needs to address any skills issues impacting on the performance of the FTT in the early stages of appeals.

Communicating with the public, the judiciary, other tribunal users and representatives of other agencies and organisations

• Maintain effective working relationships with the judiciary, customers and stakeholders. Working with other government departments to improve the level of service offered to users.
• Attend and contribute to Tribunal user group meetings, case progression meetings, technical team meetings, listing and administrative meetings as required.

Specialisms

• To have a working knowledge of functions undertaken within the Cluster, to support the development and review of policies and procedures.
• To provide specific functions as directed by judiciary and line management in line with the Delegation for providing that service.
• To develop an understanding of the relevant legislation regarding appeal rights to the FTT.
• Discuss with, and receive guidance from, the Tribunal caseworkers, Registrar or judiciary regarding appropriate actions to take to progress cases in line with your skill set.

Accountability

• The tribunal caseworker will report to a manager within the First-tier Tribunal (Tax).
• Working under delegated judicial functions, the caseworker will receive significant technical input and direction from the Tax Appeals Registrar

Other duties

The post holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Location of Post

The post holder will be located in the FTT Administrative Centre located at 54 Hagley Road, Birmingham.

Key Civil Service Behaviours

You will be required to provide evidence of the following key behaviours at Level 2.

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

While all of the behaviours are important, the initial sift of applications will focus on ‘Making Effective Decisions’.

Operational Delivery in HMCTS

This role is part of the Operational Delivery Profession. Operational delivery professionals are the outward face of government, providing essential services to the public in a variety of roles. They work in many different departments and agencies across the breadth of the UK, delivering service to customers in

• Face-to-face roles in HMCTS for example a court usher
• Contact Centre roles in HMCTS for example call centre advisers
• Processing roles in HMCTS for example Staff at the County Courts Money-Claims Centre and Courts and Tribunal Administration

Being part of the operational delivery profession means belonging to a cross-government community of people. This will offer you access to information on professional standards, skills development and qualifications to help you continue to improve your development and performance and expand your career options.