HMRC slammed

HMRC has been slammed by the National Audit Office for shoddy customer service that cost callers – one in four of whom couldn’t even get through - £136m in 2011-12.

The NAO’s damning report found that taxpayers shelled out £33m in call charges, many clocking up huge bills on costly premium rate numbers even while they were waiting in a queue for the call to be connected.

The government spending watchdog estimated that the value of ‘customers’ time while on the telephone to HMRC was £103m, based on a £15 an hour wage.

Between April – September 2011, 6.5 million taxpayers were kept waiting for over 10 minutes just to have their call answered.

In 2011-12, HMRC answered 74% of phone calls, but some 20 million – one in four - were not answered.

Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee which oversees the NAO, said taxpayers had experienced a “substandard” performance and it was “totally unacceptable that HMRC uses costly 0845 numbers and charges people for the privilege of waiting for the department to pick up”.

She said:

‘HMRC needs to be far more ambitious in its efforts to improve the customer service it currently provides.’

‘Targets must better match those of other organisations to greatly reduce the time callers are left hanging on the line and it needs to provide alternatives to 0845 numbers.’

‘Customer service at HMRC has been too poor for too long. It needs to put in place a formal strategy for how it is going to make long term service improvements that centre on the needs of customers.’

The report did, however, point to service improvements from “a low point in 2010, when problems with the new National Insurance and PAYE system increased the number of queries”.

So far in 2012-13, HMRC has improved its handling of post but its performance in handling calls has been varied. However, in October 2012, HMRC answered 91% of calls, its highest monthly performance since December 2009.

But significant improvements still needed to be made, as NAO chief Amyas Morse, highlighted.

He said:

‘The taxpayers and claimants who phone HMRC do not have a choice about whether they interact with the department. Despite some welcome improvements, HMRC has acknowledged that its performance in providing services to the public has been unacceptable.’

‘HMRC faces difficult decisions about whether it should aspire to meet the service performance standards of a commercial organisation. It could do only by spending significantly more money or becoming substantially more cost effective.’

An HMRC spokesman said:

‘In 2010/11 we answered 48% of all call attempts, rising to 74% in 2011/12. By late 2012 we were answering over 90% of calls to our contact centres. We are well aware that in the past we have not delivered the standard of service to which we are committed. We are determined to build on this progress and we have invested £34 million so we can deliver on our improvement targets earlier than planned.’

‘We receive well over 10 million pieces of post every year, and the most recent figures show we are now replying to over 80% within 15 working days.’

‘We want people to be able to access our phone services at the lowest possible cost to them, while ensuring value for money to the taxpayer. As part of this commitment we have transferred our Tax Credits Phone Lines, accounting for around 40 per cent of our calls, from 0845 to 0345 numbers.’

‘We are determined to build on these improvements until we deliver the quality of service that our customers are entitled to expect.’

More details are available on the NAO website.