In recent days, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has again found itself under fire for customer service failings, after new research revealed that one in ten calls made to the Revenue’s tax helpline went unanswered by support staff last year.
The news, which comes at a time when the tax authority is increasingly pushing to digitise its services, follows the publication of the Revenue’s own monthly performance report, which reveals that HMRC has received thousands of complaints in the past year.
Between February 2017 and February 2018, the average number of monthly complaints received has risen from 5,427 to 6,162.
During this time, HMRC callers have been left hanging on the line for an average of 3 minutes and 47 seconds when attempting to speak to an advisor – a huge improvement over the average of 12 minutes recorded back in 2015/16.
However, 14 per cent of taxpayers still had to wait for 10 minutes or more, while some four million callers were unable to get through to HMRC at all, the latest figures suggest.
In the period studied, one in ten calls to HMRC went unanswered – up from just one in 20 calls that went unanswered the previous year.
Meg Hillier, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said that it was “absolutely vital” HMRC provided a good quality service to taxpayers.
“It is collecting tax on hard-earned money, and it needs to make it easier for people to play by the rules. Its telephone service is still an important part of that,” she said.