Assistant Economist London, England
Job description
Details
Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Senior Executive Officer
Contract type
Business area
Type of role
Economist
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information
Location
About the job
Job summary
About HM Treasury
If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives across the country, the Treasury is the department for you! We sit at the centre of everything that the Government does and have provided advice on economic policy and decisions that affect the public finances throughout the country’s history. A Treasury career continues to offer an exciting opportunity to be part of the decision making that affects the whole of the UK.
Working at the heart of government, we collaborate with other departments to ensure public money is spent well and to drive strong and sustainable economic growth. Our work ranges from protecting customers through to the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, supporting people across the country through the COVID 19 furlough scheme and Plan for Jobs as well as helping first time buyers buy their first home.
HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, gender, age ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.
The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring people together across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important issues of the day.
HM Treasury in Darlington will be joined by the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Competition and Markets Authority, the Department for Education and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Job description
About the Group
Personal Tax, Welfare and Pensions
We work to create a tax and welfare system which supports the government’s goals of deficit reduction, economic growth and fairness. In doing so, we look after high profile areas including personal taxes, labour markets, welfare, tax administration, pensions, and savings. We also coordinate spending controls for both HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions. The Group also has a wider role to assess the overall impact of changes made to taxes and benefit on households across the UK.
Our work means that we are often at the centre of ministers’ decision making, and we play an important part in the Budget and the Spending Review. Our group works closely with colleagues at HMRC, DWP and the Prime Minister’s office, and with a wide variety of external stakeholders.
About the Team
Personal Tax
Personal Tax (PT) is a team of over 20 responsible for advising ministers on income tax, National Insurance contributions, inheritance tax and all other aspects of the personal tax system. With overall personal tax receipts totalling over £300bn, these issues are of fundamental fiscal and economic importance to the Treasury – and of critical political importance to the Chancellor and other Ministers.
The team leads on personal tax announcements at the annual Budget and is also responsible for the government’s longer-term strategy on personal taxation and its links with other areas of the tax and welfare systems. These issues receive a high level of public attention and are widely covered in the press and media. The team has delivered key Government policies at Autumn Statements and Budgets over the past few years such as:
- Within income tax, increasing the personal allowance to £12,570 and the higher rate threshold to £50,270 in 2021-22 and then freezing those thresholds until 2027-28.
- The introduction (and subsequent reversal) of the Health and Social Care Levy.
- Introducing and then increasing the National Insurance Employment Allowance relief.
About the Role
This role would suit an economist looking to work in a high-profile and fast paced area of government policy! It will reward those who enjoy investigating the links between policy and the wider economy, and who like their analysis to influence policy decisions.
The role sits in the Strategy & Economics Team within Personal Tax and provides analytical input and advice into tax policymaking. We work across the full range of personal taxes: income tax, National Insurance contributions, inheritance tax, and other aspects of the system. There is a continuously high level of interest in our work from ministers and senior officials, and the sheer size of the personal tax system means it will always be of economic, fiscal and political importance!
Our work varies from short-term analysis in the run-up to a Budget to longer-term deep dives into specific areas of tax economics. We do not work alone – we frequently collaborate with labour market, Budget, economics and fiscal teams within the Treasury, with analysts in HMRC and beyond, and with external academics and think-tanks.
Key Accountabilities for this role include:
- Produce economic analysis to inform and influence personal tax policy development, covering economic theory, empirical evidence and behavioural impacts.
- Monitor and analyse personal tax receipts, communicating conclusions to senior policy officials. This includes OBR forecast rounds ahead of the Budget as well as year-round scrutiny of receipts and underlying labour market trends.
- Use, maintain and further develop spreadsheet-based models to calculate tax liabilities for illustrative individuals, covering employee and self-employed taxes under varying scenarios.
- Undertake in-depth, longer-term projects on the economics of personal tax.
Person specification
Required Skills, Experience and Behaviours:
The below criteria will be assessed in your application form.
The lead criteria is:
- Technical skill: Ability to apply economic theory and analyse data to draw robust, policy-relevant conclusions
If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criteria only, which will usually be a behaviour. This may be an experience or technical skill, but only where critical to the position.
We will assess the below further criteria in your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing: Ability to communicate economic analysis to technical and non-technical audiences in written and verbal form to influence policy debates
- Delivering at Pace: Ability to work independently and proactively, prioritising multiple tasks and delivering to short timescales
- Working Together: Ability to build and maintain positive relationships with diverse groups of stakeholders and work with them to deliver results
Required Qualifications:
To have (or be working towards) an undergraduate degree or equivalent / higher qualification with an economics component of at least 50%.
Candidate Guidance on Completing your Application Form
Where will we assess success profiles across your application form.
- Behaviours - these will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per behaviour. The application form will indicate which behaviour is being assessed each time you provide a statement, and we are ideally looking for an example using the below STAR method to demonstrate this behaviour in line with the full criteria stated
- Technical Skills - this will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per technical skill. You will give the answer in a separate technical skills section, and be given direct guidance on the technical skill we are looking for you to demonstrate
All elements of the success profiles will be linked to a defined criterion that demonstrates the behaviour, experience or technical skills. It is beneficial to ensure your answer focuses on the full criteria, and not just the related success profile, to give you the best chance or providing the evidence the panel wants to assess.
In your statements, it is best to focus on one example in each section to allow you to provide enough detail in your answer and use all the words you have been allocated. Examples from a range of roles across your application will demonstrate that you have the skills, experience and behaviours we are looking for. We would also advise you to use examples that best meet the criteria, even if it is a few years old.
How to Structure your Answer
Please use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach when writing your application answers.
- Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
- Task - The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
- Action - What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
- Result - Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.
Notes to Candidates
- Please refer to the candidate FAQ document which is a link on the job advert – this will provide you with guidance on completing the application form. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issue accessing this document.
- At HM Treasury, to maximise diversity and inclusion within our workforce, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. This means that the sift panel will only be able to assess you on the written evidence supplied in your application answers. They will not have access to personal information.
- You may be asked to provide some CV details during your application; however these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview – please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour, experience and technical skill statements .
- You will be assessed on your skills, experience and behaviours through the online application form. When completing your application form, please outline how you meet the requirements as detailed in the ‘Essential Criteria ‘section of this job description. This will give you the best chance to provide the evidence that the panel wants to assess. More guidance can be found here – completing your application.
- If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed initially against the lead criterion alone. You will then be assessed against the other criteria if you have met the minimum score on the first criterion.
- Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.
- Applications are not reviewed until the closing date has passed. You will be notified of the outcome of your application as soon as the recruitment panel has reviewed all the applications.
Recruitment Timeline
Closing Date
Shortlisting application forms
Interviews
Sunday 19th Feb
w/c 20th Feb
w/c 27th Feb and/or w/c 6th March
Qualifications
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Working Together
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Ability to apply economic theory and analyse data to draw robust, policy-relevant conclusions.
Benefits
- 25 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King's birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant)
- Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)
- A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%
- Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room
- Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving
- Access to a retail discounts and cashback site
- A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes
- A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)
Flexible working arrangements:
HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; working from home, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month, providing you work enough hours to meet business need.
We also offer a generous parental and adoption leave package.
At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff are able to realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of our pre-employment security checks, if you are invited to interview and are not a current HM Treasury member of staff, you will need to bring:
- Proof of identity, e.g. your passport or driver’s license. Documents must be in date and valid.
- Proof of address, e.g. a utility bill or bank statement issued within the past 3 months
- Proof of your National Insurance (NI) number, e.g. letter from DWP confirming your NI number, or P60
- If you do not bring a UK or EU passport, you will need to bring other documentation of your right to work in the UK, e.g. your visa, biometric residence permit or birth certificate.
- If your right to work is granted through the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside you proof of identity you will need to provide either a letter of application or status outcome letter from the Home Office. If you are successful in being appointed to the role you will also be required to provide a Right to Work Share Code
Further details regarding acceptable documents will be provided in the invitation to interview. If you cannot provide in the first instance, the above documentation required for employment checks, at interview, please contact [email protected], If you are offered the role, we will require all documentation, as this is part of the security vetting process. If you do not provide this at interview stage, this may slow down the process and delay your start date.
If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs Profile.
Eligibility Statement
Individuals appointed to the Treasury Group will be subject to National Security Vetting. To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out applicants will normally need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case by case basis using all information that can be obtained following a successful application. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks.
For many roles, security clearance is also required. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements of the role before they can be appointed. The level of security clearance required for this role is Counter Terrorist Check (CTC)
Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you.
Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.
These short videos address common concerns and preconceptions which applicants may have about national security vetting.
If you have questions relating to security clearances, please contact [email protected].
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
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).
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