UK Tax Collector's Phone Service 'deliberately' Bad To Push Users Online, Say MPs

The UK tax collector must "take responsibility for its own failings to offer sufficiently effective digital services to customers," according to a committee of MPs which accused HMRC of "deliberately" poor phone service to push callers online.

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee found that 2023-24, His Majesty's Revenue & Customs phone service's performance reached an all-time low. In the first 11 months of the year, it cut off nearly 44,000 customers who had been waiting 70 minutes to speak to an adviser because its system could not cope with demand. Only two-thirds of calls were answered, and the average wait time was more than 23 minutes.

Meanwhile, the transition to online services, which HMRC has been pursuing since 2010, has "not sufficiently reduced demand on the phone and HMRC has failed to prioritize the resources needed to sustain an appropriate standard of telephone service. Telephone demand has remained high, with 37 million telephone calls in 2023-24."

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the Committee, said: "Given that citizens have no choice but to engage with HMRC, it has a responsibility to aspire to the highest standards of service. Unfortunately, what we have instead is a tax authority excavating its way to new lows in service levels every year. Worse, it seems to be degrading its own services as a matter of policy. HMRC is an organization in defensive mode, and needs bold and ambitious leadership to begin to chart its recovery."

In a statement, HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said the PAC's claim that its phone service was deliberately bad to push customers online was "completely baseless." The tax collector had made "huge improvements" to its services with call wait times down by 17 minutes since April last year, he said.

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The PAC has recommended that as part of HMRC's "digital roadmap" it should prioritize new systems for customers to submit files and send secure messages electronically to HMRC. This should enable savings which can be recycled into improving its service," the report, HMRC Customer Service and Accounts, said.

Last March, the PAC said that user experience on HMRC's digital services failed to meet a high enough standard. "HMRC insists it has good-quality digital services for customers to manage their taxes but this is not the experience shared by the taxpayers and their agents that got in touch with us," it said.

In May, the National Audit Office found taxpayers that used the phone line had been left on hold, collectively, for 798 years in fiscal 2023, and digital channels had failed to ease the burden on HMRC. ®