Revenue 0845 helpline numbers to be phased out
Last week the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) waded into Lin Homer, HMRC's chief executive, over its services to taxpayers.
In a report released last year the National Audit Office (NAO) found that in 2011/12 HMRC only answered 74% of calls. The NAO estimated that it cost taxpayers £33 million in call charges while they are in the queue and that the value of customers’ time while they are in the queue was around £103 million.
The use of 0845 helpline numbers was condemned by the PAC chair, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, as being “unacceptable”. She pointed out that those calling the helpline from a mobile phone were charged 41p a minute. With some people being made to wait for more than 10 minutes Hodge was correct in her criticism.
HMRC makes no profit from helpline calls but does receive extra services from Cable & Wireless in return for their business. Cable & Wireless on the other hand makes a profit in the region of £1 million from the calls.
By the end of this summer however the 0845 numbers will be replaced by cheaper 03 ones. Some Revenue helplines already use 03 prefixes such as the tax credit enquiry line. Child benefit enquiries will also be reverting to 03 as from April.
Lin Homer informed the PAC that her department was striving to answer 90% of calls within 5 minutes and that it was not far off in achieving that target. During the last quarter, HMRC's own statistics indicated that this target had been regularly met over the last quarter. Homer claimed that HMRC has also reduced the average call waiting times to 5 – 6 minutes including automated messages which their own 'customer' satisfaction reviews indicated was acceptable!
Hodge however was unimpressed, describing the Revenue's targets as “unambitious” and going on to say, “Your ambition is miles below the industry benchmark of answering 80% of calls in 20 seconds. Do you really trust your own customer checks?” She claimed that at the current rate 16 million callers would be kept waiting in excess of 5 minutes.
Homer however responded to Margaret Hodge's criticism by pointing out that most other call centres handle a lower call volume than her department which currently receives 80 million calls a year.
HMRC are also devising a method to dispense with the need for taxpayers to seek guidance over the telephone, which could result in calls falling to 64 million per year. According to HMRC director-general for personal tax, Ruth Owen, many people telephone to check on the progress of a query or because of confusion caused by HMRC's systems or advice.
Labour MP for Great Grimsby, Austin Mitchell posed the question of the cost of the 0845 numbers. Lin Homer was unconvincing in her response saying, “It's considerably less than £1 million” and “I'm loath to give information in public about how much I'm prepared to pay for these services.” Needless to say, tax avenger Hodge was having none of this declaring, “We're entitled to know how much it is, it's taxpayers money.”
Homer also highlighted HMRC's improvement in dealing with letters. Her organisation had a million pieces of post 12 months ago but by last December this had fallen to under 100,000.
Despite the progress made by HMRC, Ms Homer was under no illusion and that her department still had a long way to go to reach the required standard.
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