As many as 17m people waiting more than five minutes on the phone for a tax query to be answered is 'acceptable', according to HMRC’s boss when grilled by a panel of MPs.
The startling assertion was made by chief executive Lin Homer during her appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), defending the tax department’s record in dealing with calls from members of the public and business community.
Referring to the figures released in a National Audit Office report, which revealed that 76% of the 80m calls for the period of 2011/12 were answered, Homer said: ‘If we can answer 90% of calls – like the last quarter - we think that people will wait up to five minutes. People believe that ... is reasonable.’
The HMRC boss also admitted that a four minute call waiting time did not include up to two minutes spent listening to pre-recorded messages but that from April, 80% of calls would be answered within five minutes.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge, who began the session by stating how ‘disappointing’ HMRC’s call centre results were and that ‘it was difficult to know where to start’, described the target of five minutes waiting time as ‘unambitious’ and ‘miles below the industry benchmark’.
Calculating that the remaining 20% of callers - who would have to wait longer than five minutes to speak to a person – would be 16 or 17m, Hodge said that ‘was a heck of a lot’ of callers.
In other exchanges, Homer also acknowledged that it wasn’t acceptable that callers had to fork out a combined £136m in call charges, declaring ‘we have got to do better’.
The PAC hearing is available to view from
No comments:
Post a Comment