The National Audit Office’s 2016 public report slammed HMRC’s unacceptably awful level of customer service in the previous tax year. Details of various mistakes were exposed and widely reported.
It is only fair that we tell you about the changes HMRC have implemented since then to improve their service offering. This is supported by a £1.3billion boost in the 2015 Spending Review and parts of the Budget 2016.
HMRC successes – online:
- New online services including webchats and mobile compliant technology designed to improve efficiency, flexibility and accessibility to HMRC services. 5 million businesses are already registered for the online Business Account and 1.5 million individuals have opened their new online Personal Tax Accounts.
- Online tax credit total was 750,000
- Self-assessment tax returns were submitted online by almost 90% of taxpayers.
HMRC successes – traditional services:
- Abysmal call waiting times that rose to a whopping 20 minutes in 2015, have been cut to an average of only 5 or 6 minutes since January 2016.
- 3,000 new staff
- Extension to HMRC office hours
- New phone system that allows calls to be distributed to different locations, depending on demand
The 2016 Budget brings more changes:
In the pipeline:
- Using online tax accounts, the introduction of a secure email system to beat the response times of the postal system currently in place.
- A deadline of April 2017 has been set for HMRC to roll out a full 7-day service. This will include more online support services, extended hours with Sunday opening for the first time.
- 800 new recruits to staff customer services which should make it easier to respond to actual demand and lower call answering times even further.
Well done HMRC!
Tony Shanks