Digital ‘pay here’ interfaces - HMRC App: initial equality impact assessment
Published 21 February 2022
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Project objectives
HMRC is making an enhancement to the HMRC app to allow for payments to be made directly from the app. It will enable Self-Assessment customers to pay using our Pay by Bank service.
Customers will be able to view their liabilities before making a payment.
Paying by card will also be enabled.
Notifications to remind customers that their payment is due will be implemented at a future date.
Consideration is also being given to expanding the facility to other personal and business tax regimes.
Customer groups affected
All Self Assessment customers.
What customers will need to do
What customers need to do as a result of the change.
The customer will not need to do anything, but they will now be able to choose to make payments via the app.
How customers will access this service.
Customers will access this facility by logging into the HMRC app.
When customers need to do this
This facility is expected to go live for HMRC app users on 21 February 2022.
Customers can choose to use this facility when they have a tax liability or when they want to pay towards their future liabilities.
Assessing the impact
We assessed the equality impacts on all the protected characteristic groups in line with the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty and section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act. There is no evidence to suggest any specific impacts on those customers within any of these protected characteristic groups:
- racial groups
- sex
- gender reassignment
- sexual orientation
- age
- religion or belief
- pregnancy and maternity
- marriage and civil partnership
- people with dependents and those without
- political opinion (for Northern Ireland only)
Disabled and not disabled
Impact on customers
There is no evidence to suggest this change will adversely impact this group. It will benefit customers by offering an alternative digital payment method in a channel which is easier for customers to navigate. It will be available to customers through their mobile phone in a fully accessibility assessed app.
Proposed mitigation
The app will be assessed to ensure it meets accessibility standards.
People who use different languages (Including Welsh Language and British Sign Language)
Impact on customers
Some customers may wish to engage with the app through the medium of Welsh. The project is implementing a Welsh Language option for this customer journey soon after this change, allowing our Welsh Language customers to use the new payment journey.
Proposed mitigation
The payments journey within the app will be available in Welsh.
Opportunities to promote equalities
We have considered opportunities to promote equalities and good relations between people in each of the protected characteristic groups and those outside of that group.
This change may allow some disabled customers the opportunity to pay digitally.
A full equality impact assessment is not recommended.