Quick Poll results: 47% of payroll professionals have not accessed HMRC’s Digital Assistant for guidance on the CJRS
10 June 2020
The CIPP’s Policy and Research team regularly hosts Quick Polls on the CIPP’s News Online page to get an understanding of some of the issues impacting the work of payroll professionals.
Unsurprisingly, many of the questions included over the past few months have been centred around the impact of coronavirus on payroll departments, and the effect of government measures implemented to support the economy through the outbreak.
Our latest Quick Poll asked if people had utilised HMRC’s Digital Assistant for guidance relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The results are below:
Have you used the Digital Assistant whilst trying to understand and/or claiming through CJRS?
No: 47%
Yes, it was very helpful: 27%
Yes, it was slightly helpful: 16%
Yes, it was not helpful at all: 10%
The most popular response by far was that no, payroll professionals had not been accessing the Digital Assistant to help them with understanding or making a claim through the CJRS. This may be because they simply were not aware of its existence, or because they have been using the wealth of guidance available on the Gov.UK pages.
Out of those who had accessed the service, most people felt that it was very helpful (27%), followed by those who stated that it was slightly helpful (16%) followed by a lower proportion stating that they felt it was not helpful at all (10%).
The Digital Assistant asks a series of multiple-choice questions, which the user responds to, until the tool finds the guidance page relevant to their scenario and diverts them there.
CIPP comment
The CIPP’s Policy and Research team is always interested in hearing feedback from CIPP members. If you have any further detail relating to the types of guidance that you have been using to help you to navigate the CJRS, or if you have any further details of your experience relating to using HMRC’s Digital Assistant, then please contact the team at [email protected].
The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. For all the latest information, news and resources on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting payroll professions, visit our Coronavirus hub.