Accountancy Body Brands HMRC’s Service Levels “Unacceptable”
HMRC’s service levels have been described as “unacceptable” by one of the UK’s foremost accountancy bodies.
The Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has said the Revenue needs to make changes to its customer service processes as a matter of urgency, particularly with the deadline for self assessment tax returns looming at the end of January.
Specifically, the ICAEW is unhappy with the length of time that people are being left to wait for assistance when they contact HMRC.
The accountancy body has said too many people are being left to wait on calls for hours at a time or find themselves being put on hold for long periods before eventually being cut off entirely.
At the same time, people writing to HMRC for information relating to technical queries have often been left waiting for six months and more for the answers to their questions.
In many other cases, individual taxpayers have been promised call backs from relevant parties within HMRC only to find that those return calls are never received.
From the ICAEW’s perspective, HMRC has a long-standing problem with its standards of service which dates back to at least the early months of the pandemic but which it considers still to be very much in evidence.
“As the 31 January self assessment deadline approaches, we urge HMRC to take immediate short-term action to solve its customer service problem, and ease the pressure on taxpayers who seek to comply with their tax obligations,” commented Frank Haskew, head of taxation strategy at the ICAEW.
“The current and long-standing level of customer service is unacceptable but unsurprising, given the reduction in staff at HMRC.
“Our members tell us they are waiting for up to a year to receive written responses to technical queries, which is just not good enough.”
According to the ICAEW, the scale of HMRC’s customer service workforce has been reduced in recent years from around 25,500 down to 19,500.
“When HMRC introduces new online services, it should not cut staff and resources in anticipation of reduced customer service demand, as experience has shown high demand often remains while services settle in,” the institute has argued.
