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Taxman promises to do better

by Susie Hughes at 11:39 01/07/15 (News on Business)

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is allocating £45 million to improve customer service, as it released statistics which showed an inconsistent call handling performance in 2014-15.

The allocation is paying for around 3,000 additional staff to join customer service teams, on top of around 2,000 staff who are being moved over from other parts of HMRC to help with the tax credits deadline and letters and forms. HMRC receives more than 60 million calls a year, peaking around key deadlines such as January 31 for Self Assessment, and July 31 for tax credits renewals. The statistics show that while 73 per cent of calls were answered last year, service standards were inconsistent across the year, with some months falling well short of HMRC’s 80 per cent target. The figures also show that in some months as many as one in five customers heard a busy tone and could not join a phone queue. Not good enough Lin Homer, HMRC Chief Executive, accepted that standards had not been good enough and outlined the actions that HMRC has already taken to improve customer service, including recruitment and investment in technology. Ms Homer said: "Despite our best efforts, our call performance hasn’t been up to scratch and we apologise to all those customers who have struggled to get through to us. Advertisement "Good customer service is an absolute priority for HMRC. We set ourselves the target to answer 80 per cent of calls, to provide a more consistent level of service across the year and to reduce peaks and troughs in service levels between busy and quieter times. "While we were successful in tackling the busiest peaks for Self Assessment and tax credits customers, we didn’t meet our call handling target overall and we didn’t provide the consistent service to which we aspired. "We have gripped this issue and recruited around 3,000 new staff in our customer operations and moved around 2,000 people from other parts of HMRC temporarily to support customer service in the run-up to the 31 July tax credits deadline. "We are already seeing the benefit of this, and we are answering 60-70 per cent of calls on tax credits helplines. Tax credits renewals overall are more than 211,000 up on the same time last year." There has also been investment in new telephone equipment, which enables calls switching to many more offices, so more staff can help customers at the busiest times. Our new online services are intended to give customers new and better ways to deal with HMRC is urging all customers who can go online to do so. Tweet -- If you wish to comment on this article, please log in and use the Reply button below. Registering is free and easy - see 'Join Shout99'. - Susie Hughes © Shout99 2015

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Taxman promises to do better	Susie Hughes - 1/07
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