- MPs say HMRC’s customer service performance has already hit an ‘all-time low’
- Latest figures show almost 1million calls went unanswered in January
- **Have you been kept waiting on an HMRC tax helpline?** Email [email protected]
Pensioners are asking if the HM Revenue and Customs phone line summer shutdown is some kind of ‘sick joke’ amid fears millions will be left high and dry.
Under the changes, taxpayers will not be able to call the tax office for help with their returns from April 8 until September 30 forcing people to use online chatbots.
Silver Voices, the only UK-wide senior citizens campaign group, have labelled the move a ‘sick joke’ and say pensioners who are not online are basically being told to ‘get lost’.
HMRC is also letting 100 customer service staff work a three-day week over the summer.
The move has also been slammed by accountancy bodies and MPs while the decision has been derided by a taxation charity which has labelled it as ‘misguided’.
Concerns have been raised by some experts it will be ‘challenging’ for some people to be tax compliant as they try to navigate through the complex system.
While The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said thousands of bosses will be reacting in dismay and warned it could rapidly create ‘huge headaches’ for those filing their taxes.
**Have you been kept waiting on an HMRC tax helpline?** Email [email protected]
Dennis Reed, the director of Silver Voices, said: ‘For such an important Government agency to close down its telephone lines for six months every year is a sick joke. And their failure to invest in an efficient advice service will lead to a drop in tax revenue as people find it too difficult to report changes in circumstances.
‘Millions of older people are now finding themselves subject to tax because of the personal allowances freeze and they need advice on such issues as annual tax returns. If they are not online HMRC is saying, get lost.’
The move comes just weeks after the Commons Public Accounts Committee of MPs condemned HMRC’s customer service for hitting an ‘all-time low’.
New figures showed how almost 1million calls went unanswered in January – typically the busiest month of the year for the service, with taxpayers rushing to file for self-assessment tax returns without triggering fines for lateness.
HMRC boss Jim Harra warned MPs in October of the impending changes to reduce phonecalls to advisers by a third by the end of 2024 as he contends with ‘reduced sources’.
‘We must swim against the current and bring it down so it is 30% lower otherwise cannot meet service standards. Some of that demand is not necessary,’ he told the Treasury Committee.
‘We get about three million calls a year that could do through digital services, with customers asking what’s my national insurance number, what’s my tax code, how do I change my password.’
Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: ‘This news will be greeted with dismay by thousands of small businesses. If you don’t have a dedicated tax and finance expert on hand, as many small businesses and self-employed people don’t, tax queries can rapidly turn into huge headaches.
‘We all know that chatbots and exhortations to go to a particular website for information are in many cases no substitute for talking to a real person, especially for complex or time-pressured issues.’
The chairwoman of the Treasury Select Committee, Harriett Baldwin, said the move to online services should not be ‘forced on taxpayers’.
She said the revenue body has not yet demonstrated that the department or the public ‘are ready to make such a monumental change to how they resolve tax issues’.
Ms Baldwin said: ‘It is a great shame that HMRC have decided now is the time to essentially close down any avenues for people to contact them over the phone for huge parts of the year. I say once again, these are well-meaning people just trying to get their taxes right.
‘We’ve heard time and time again that every effort is being made to direct people to resolve issues online.
‘The committee welcomes efforts to make the tax system more efficient but HMRC has not yet demonstrated that the department or the public are ready to make such a monumental change to how they resolve tax issues.
‘This should not be forced upon taxpayers until there is evidence that people know how to do their taxes on HMRC’s incredibly complex website.
The new six-month closure will coincide with what has been called an ‘annualised hours’ pilot programme giving 100 customer service employees three-day weeks over the summer, before working longer hours during winter.
Dawn Register, head of tax dispute resolution at advisory firm BDO, said although digital innovation ‘is clearly a benefit to taxpayers, online guidance, digital assistants and webchat facilities only go so far’.
‘The tax system is complicated, people’s financial affairs are complicated, and there are times when taxpayers simply need to speak to a human being to find out the answers to their questions,’ she said.
‘Tax can be horribly stressful and our concern is that this decision will make being tax compliant more challenging for some people.’
The Public Accounts Committee’s recent report found average waiting times of 25 minutes before HMRC answered phone calls.
HMRC carried out a similar summer closure last year, getting rid of the helpline between June 12 and September 4.
Despite the government body describing the seasonal pilot as ‘successful’, it was slammed by accountancy bodies as well as MPs.
And there is anger now after it was revealed the closure would be resumed and last even longer this year.
Critics have warned the new ‘seasonal’ helpline would mean more taxpayers file returns late and fill them in incorrectly, after statistics showed there were 180,000 fewer in January this year compared to 12 months ago.
Gary Ashford, from the Chartered Institute for Taxation, called the latest decision to shut down the helpline ‘misguided’.
He said: ‘We are deeply dismayed that, so soon after the criticisms levelled at them by the Public Accounts Committee and in the light of an inconclusive evaluation, HMRC has decided to make these big, permanent cuts to the help it provides to taxpayers.
‘If last year’s announcement of the summer closure of the self-assessment helpline was a ‘flashing indicator’ that HMRC can’t cope, today’s announcements are a blinding light.
‘HMRC’s own evaluation of both the closure of the helpline in summer 2023, and the helpline restrictions during the 2024 self-assessment peak, concluded that it is too early to say if there has been a long-term shift from phone contact to online self-service. Yet HMRC have decided to go ahead anyway.’
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales called the move ‘disappointing’, the Telegraph reported.
And the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group’s Victoria Todd said: ‘HMRC’s online services, including guidance and the automated digital assistant, are not yet at the standard required to support a forced channel shift to digital.
‘This increases the likelihood of errors and non-compliance, storing up problems for taxpayers and HMRC further down the line.’
HMRC also plans to permanently shut its VAT helpline other than for the five business days in the build-up to each month’s submission deadline – while the ‘pay as you earn’ helpline will no longer cover calls chasing up PAYE refunds unless taxpayers are unable to go online.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s second permanent secretary and deputy chief executive, said: ‘Online services have transformed our lives and often provide a better service for managing tax – they’re quicker, easier and always available.
‘Changing our services to encourage customers to self-serve online wherever possible will allow our helpline advisers to focus support where it is most needed – helping those with complex tax queries and those who are vulnerable and need extra support.
‘We must maximise every pound of taxpayers’ money. Embracing online self-service allows us to help more customers and improve our customer service levels without spending additional public money.’
It was revealed last month that a ‘VIP lane’ has been allowing top earners, such as civil servants and ministers, to get their calls to HMRC answered nine times quicker than ordinary Britons.
The helpline, also known as Public Department 1, has up to nine call handlers answering the phone at any given time, meaning the average waiting time is just 2 minutes and 27 seconds.
In contrast, the rest of the population was forced to wait an average of 22 minutes and 47 seconds to get through to HMRC from July to December 2023, according to the latest publicly available figures.
It also emerged that 10million calls to the taxman have been going unanswered a year – with 80 per cent of all HMRC staff now working from home=.
Just one in five were in the office at any one time last July.
And concerns have been raised that more than 1.1million taxpayers will be stung with fines worth a combined £110million this year, as stealth taxes mean many will have to file their own returns for the first time.
HMRC will rake in the record windfall in late payment charges because an estimated 1.1million missed the January 31 self-assessment deadline.
**Have you been kept waiting on an HMRC tax helpline?** Email [email protected]
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
