HMRC has announced that it intends to close all of its 281 enquiry centres from 2014 and replace them with a new flexible support service for 1.5 million taxpayers who need extra help with their tax affairs.
The new service, which will be piloted by the Revenue, over a five month period from June, will provide mobile, one-to-one support in a range of convenient locations, including a person’s own home or business. Expert advisors, trained to deal with people who need extra support, will also be on hand to help a caller until the issue is resolved. The pilot will be trialled in the North East of England during the period 3rd June – 31st October 2013.
During the pilot enquiry centres in Alnwick, Bishop Auckland, Bridlington, Darlington, Durham, Hexham, Middlesborough, Morpeth, Newcastle, Scarborough, Stockton, Sunderland and York will be shut down.
Over recent years enquiry centres have seen visitors fall from 5 million in 2005/06 to less than 2.5 million in 2011/12. In the face of such a sharp decline in demand some centres now only open just once a week. Of those taxpayers who used an enquiry centre in 2012, only 16% required a face-to-face appointment.
The cost of hosting an appointment at an enquiry centre, on average, was £152 per appointment last year and in one centre the cost approached £500 per appointment. In contrast, the average cost of dealing with a taxpayer by telephone is £3 per call, and an online transaction costs just 9p.
HMRC calculations indicate that the new service will save taxpayers almost £12 million a year in lost time and travel costs, and will be more than £13 million a year cheaper to run as a result of the closure of the enquiry centre network in 2014. Face-to-face support will be provided to suit the customers who need it and without the constraints of a fixed location and limited opening times of enquiry centres. New mobile teams will hold tax “surgeries” in places such as citizens advice bureaus, job centres and libraries.
According to HMRC the vast majority of taxpayers never use an Enquiry Centre, whereas telephone enquiries are in excess of 60 million calls a year and millions of online transactions are conducted, such as for filing self assessment and VAT returns.
The proposals will place 1,300 jobs at risk although HMRC has promised to “do everything possible” to redeploy those staff affected elsewhere within the department. The plans will also enable the Revenue to make £47 million in savings by vacating and making more efficient use of office space that is part occupied by enquiry centres. In addition, around £13.5 million will be saved in staff costs per annum.
Lin Homer, HMRC’s Chief Executive, said, “HMRC is dedicated to providing help to customers who need it. This new service will enable us to tailor that help in a way that works better for customers and is more flexible and affordable than the service we currently provide.
We will give a more specialised phone service for customers whose affairs can be resolved over the telephone, and face-to-face help to those who need it, visiting them at a place convenient to them,
saving them both travel and time. HMRC will provide a more modern and accessible service that will target the right support to customers who need it, where and when they want it.”
The plans have not gone down well in some quarters of the tax profession with the case being made for those taxpayers who need help with their tax affairs but are uncomfortable with using the internet or call centres, such as the elderly and those with literacy problems.
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