Blame late taxpayers for our phone delays, says HMRC boss

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Taxpayers clogging HM Revenue and Customs phone lines unnecessarily are to blame for long waiting times rather than home tax policy, his boss has insisted.

The Revenue Service has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks after it emerged some callers were forced to wait an hour or more to speak with HMRC or were cut off before receiving a response. The delays have wreaked havoc on taxpayers who have questions before the deadline for self-assessment tax returns on January 31.

Earlier this month, MPs suggested falling service levels at HMRC could be linked to its generous work-from-home policy, which allows staff to spend two days a week out of the office.

But Jim Harra, chief executive of the tax office, has doubled down on efforts to allow staff to work from home during one of the busiest months of the fiscal calendar year.

In a letter to MPs today, he said: Colleagues are only allowed to work from home if they can perform their duties there effectively.

We are able to monitor and manage the performance of helpline counselors whether they are working from home or in the office, and the evidence we have on the productivity of home versus office counselors shows that the number of callers served per counselor is similar regardless of where they work.

HMRC has historically had the lowest HQ staff occupancy rate of any department in Whitehall except the Foreign Office last year, down from 9% to no more than 61%, according to government data.

Instead, Mr Harra said too many people who could find an answer to their query online were calling HMRC in the hope of speaking to one of their advisers and blocking the phone lines for everyone else .

The taxman estimates that 65% of calls to its self-assessment hotline in the two weeks ending Jan. 8 involved questions that could have been resolved online.

Mr. Harra said: When more customers use our online services, it frees up our helpline advisers to provide better service to customers who have more complex queries or cannot use online services.

Self-assessment clients have a generous 10 months after the end of the tax year to file their return and pay their tax. We encourage them not to wait until the last minute to do so, particularly if they have not already registered to use our online services or if they might have a question.

He added that 850 officers had been redeployed within the department to prioritize self-assessment calls.

The average call wait time on the Self-Assessment Helpline was 27 minutes in the two weeks ending January 8, compared to 12 minutes in the same period last year. Last year, HMRC extended the deadline for tax returns to February 28 to account for delays caused by the pandemic.

Mr Harra said at exceptionally busy times HMRC can disconnect a call and tell taxpayers to try again later if they are unlikely to speak to an adviser within a reasonable waiting time.

Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire and Chair of the Treasury Committee, said: As the tax deadline nears at the end of the month, taxpayers will first take note of advice on checking the HMRC website .

However, it is important that people can contact the tax authorities if there are any unanswered questions and we will continue to seek reassurance that the service can meet peaks in demand without collapsing.

The powerful Public Accounts Committee has given HMRC three months to improve unacceptable levels of customer service.

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