UK customers spent 798 years on hold waiting to speak with HMRC in 2022-23, more than double the time spent waiting in 2019-20, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report on the tax collector’s customer service.
The average wait time in the first 11 months of 2023-24 was nearly 23 minutes. That is up five minutes on 2018-19 times.
HMRC’s strategy is to encourage customers to turn to its digital services first so queries can be resolved quickly and easily online. This is intended to cut costs servicing telephone calls and correspondence, as well as free up staff to serve people who need extra support.
However, the NAO says it is not clear how far and fast digital will reduce demand for telephone and correspondence services. Digital services, it explained, are better suited for straightforward queries and reporting changes in customers’ circumstances.
NAO felt HMRC has not yet done enough to raise awareness of its digital services, or understands how effectively these services meet customers’ needs.
The move to digital services has also not eased pressure on traditional services as much as HMRC had hoped! Now the quality of service provided by HMRC telephone and correspondence has been far below the levels expected in recent years, and advisers are taking more time on average to answer calls and handle fewer of them.
The NAO report even suggested that many avoidable customer calls are actually caused by HMRC itself!
Read the full report here: HMRC customer service – NAO report
