The tax office is in the grip of a customer service meltdown — just as close to five million taxpayers have only three weeks left to file their 2022-23 tax returns.
Chaos at HM Revenue & Customs has left taxpayers facing hour-long call wait times to get through, and many complain that their letters are going unanswered.
In extreme cases, people are waiting up to nine months to receive acknowledgement of their correspondence.
Dozens of Money Mail readers have voiced their frustration over year-long waits for tax refunds and being unable to get the answers they need from the Revenue’s online chatbot, which taxpayers are being told to use instead of calling the helpline.
Others complain that HMRC is operating in an ‘unprofessional’ manner and many staff appear to be working from home.
Meltdown: Chaos at HM Revenue & Customs has left taxpayers facing hour-long call wait times to get through
In one case, a reader tells of how a call was disrupted by a baby crying in the background and the call had to be put on hold.
Accountants and tax experts who rely on HMRC to conduct business tell us the department is ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and has been in serious decline for months.
Those seeking help are finding it difficult to speak to anyone ahead of the January 31 tax return deadline as a direct result of HMRC reducing the service on its helpline on December 11.
Only four days’ notice of this was given, leaving millions with limited phone support in the run-up to the self-assessment deadline.
The tax office now says it will take only ‘priority calls’ — and will direct everyone else to its website.
The timing couldn’t be worse — it is the busiest month of the year for filing tax returns.
Last year, taxpayers made 1.2 million calls to HMRC in the eight weeks leading up to the January 31 deadline, according to official figures — on average 41,000 calls per day.
Worse still, more people will be forced to do so for the first time this year, thanks to a toxic mix of frozen tax thresholds and falling tax-free allowances.
This is causing confusion among those who face taxes they have never had to pay before — and who are unable to get the support they need from HMRC.
HMRC’s decision to restrict access to its helpline has provoked anger among MPs and tax experts, who warn it could lead to mistakes on tax returns and people facing fines.
The Revenue said last week it expects more than 12 million people to file a tax return for the 2022-2023 tax year by January 31. But at the start of January, 5.7 million people had yet to do so.
The majority of those with queries are being told to seek help from HMRC’s ‘digital assistance’ online chatbot. But experts warn the programme is difficult to use and offers only a complete response when it is given specific prompts written in ‘tax lingo’.
Robert Salter, of leading tax firm Blick Rothenberg, says even as an expert he found it tricky to operate when he had to resort to using it for personal taxes.
‘The chatbot isn’t the magic answer that HMRC wants it to be,’ he says. ‘I didn’t find it easy to use — it was awkward and frustrating.
Chatbot misery: The majority of those with self-assessment queries are being told to seek help from HMRC’s ‘digital assistance’ online chatbot
If you were IT savvy you may get better answers, but you shouldn’t need to be. Even where you do get an answer, all the nuance of your personal case is lost, so it is just a partial answer.
‘HMRC has developed lots of technological solutions but in reality, they are not the solution, it is just a fudge that can slow the process down even more.’
When Money Mail attempted to use the ‘self-assessment chat’ service on HMRC’s website, it was vague in its answers. When we asked ‘How do I know if I need to pay tax on my savings?’, it responded with: ‘Is it your first time submitting a Self Assessment tax return?’.
By clicking ‘yes’, we were sent a link to guidance on how to submit your first Self Assessment tax return and directed to a YouTube video.
HMRC figures point to just half of customers receiving a satisfactory answer. It says that ‘in more than 50 pc of customer interactions with HMRC’s digital assistant, the assistant successfully helps customers find the information they need’. If it can’t find the answer, it connects the customer to a webchat adviser.
Andy Gibbs, a chartered tax adviser at TaxAssist Accountants, says: ‘It’s frustrating because people just want to pay their taxes. They don’t want to overpay and wait for their money back or underpay and face a fine.
‘There’s a lot of confusion out there, especially with several tax changes all coming about at once, so it’s ridiculous that they can’t get through on the phone.’
Eddie Grant, who heads up a team of tax experts at St James’s Place, says most people want the reassurance of being told by an HMRC official that they are doing their taxes correctly.
He says: ‘They’re likely to be paying more tax this year but because costs are high, they will be keen not to overpay.
There are a lot of people who are more comfortable on the phone and aren’t able to use the digital chatbot.’ Older taxpayers say they feel abandoned by HMRC, as they are uncomfortable with technology.
‘These people are being left behind by HMRC,’ Mr Grant adds.
‘When you think about how banks are closing branches and face-to-face contact is declining rapidly, for HMRC now to also restrict the ability to speak to someone is just another area of contact that is disappearing.’
Richard Taylor, who is 75 and retired, says he is uncomfortable with the chatbot but his attempts to contact HMRC by any other means — phone, email or post — have proved unsuccessful.
Richard was relieved when he thought his three-month nightmare trying to rectify his incorrect tax code was over. He had been unable to get through to HMRC on the phone when it closed its phone lines between June and September last year, and his emails and letters all went unanswered.
Backlash: HMRC’s decision to restrict access to its helpline has provoked anger among MPs and tax experts, who warn it could lead to mistakes on tax returns and people facing fines
But when the retired lawyer eventually got through when the phone lines reopened and he received a refund for his overpaid tax, he realised his bill was still inaccurate. He suspects his tax refund has been double counted — but the phone lines are now reduced once again and so he can’t find out.
‘What a hopeless service,’ he says. ‘It is so frustrating that you can’t get through to them to rectify the mistakes they keep making. It has never been this bad before.’
Peter Taylor, from Nottingham, says he was on hold for an hour when he attempted to call HMRC in December, and has previously waited 45 minutes to speak to someone.
The 87-year-old filed his paper self-assessment tax return on May 15 for the 2022/23 tax year, but did not received an acknowledgment of receipt or the tax refund he was due. Peter says he estimates that he overpaid £3,000 in tax, due to a large charitable donation he made after the death of his wife.
When Peter called HMRC in September, he was told to write to the Self-Assessment centre to check his return had been received. However, when he called back in October he was given another address to which to send his letter.
Peter has now received confirmation that HMRC is dealing with his claim. He adds: ‘I was told they are processing the returns in the order they were filed. Are they so far behind that my return still isn’t at the top of the pile more than seven months later?’
HMRC says that three-quarters of all calls made in December were answered after an average wait time of 25 minutes. However, Money Mail readers report hold periods of more than double that.
Roslyn Willis, a retired teacher, says she waited 58 minutes to speak to an HMRC officer at the beginning of December.
‘It’s horrendous — it is worse than it has ever been,’ she says.
Roslyn, who is 72 and a widow, amends the way her tax is paid each year, preferring to pay one big bill out of her savings rather than have tax deducted from her pension every month.
‘I always have to contact HMRC because they can’t seem to do it automatically, but this year I found them especially ineffective, impolite and inept,’ she says. ‘They are unnecessarily putting people in an angst-ridden situation.
‘During one call, the customer service operator said he was working from home. He told me: “I’m upstairs, but will pass you down to my wife who is in the dining room and who works on tax codes.” It’s not what I would expect of a government department — it’s just so informal.’
A Freedom of Information Request submitted by Money Mail found that between January and June 2023, 94.8 per cent of HMRC staff worked at home or in a non-office location for at least one day a week, and 84 per cent did so for at least two days a week.
One reader tells us that after a 40-minute wait on hold, he could hear an infant crying in the background. ‘I was told that I would be put on hold as the HMRC representative had to gather further information,’ he says. ‘The call was placed on hold, and after a further ten minutes it automatically ended. How long does it take to change a nappy?’
Demand: Last year, taxpayers made 1.2 million calls to HMRC in the eight weeks leading up to the January 31 deadline, according to official figures — on average 41,000 calls per day
An HMRC spokesman says that advisers answer the same number of calls whether they are in the office or not and performance was in fact better on average where staff work remotely.
He said: ‘All our staff are held to the same standards whether they are working from an HMRC building or from home. Offering hybrid working is now essential for recruitment and retention in a competitive labour market.’ Mr Salter says that when you can get through on the phone, frontline staff lack the training and expertise they once had.
‘The level of training has really declined and staff have less experience than they had before. You will call them up and they say the manual says X, but that doesn’t deal with your case or answer your particular query.’
Victoria Fisher, from London, was told last month that she would have to wait until November 2024 to receive a reissued cheque for her tax rebate.
The 50-year-old, who works in sales for a pharmaceutical company, says she received a cheque for a tax rebate of £1,291.95 on October 4, but that her first and last names had been incorrectly transposed and the cheque made out to F Victoria — which meant her bank would not accept it. She was told to request a new cheque with the correct name.
After a 50-minute wait on the phone, an official at HMRC confirmed that a mistake had been made and they would notify the correct department. Her cheque would be cancelled and a new one should be reissued within eight weeks.
On December 11, she had still not received the new cheque and phoned again. After further calls, she was told the order had still not been processed and she would now have to wait for the reissued cheque until November 2024.
‘I was shocked. I thought they said the wrong date because I couldn’t believe it would take that long. It is unacceptable,’ she says.
‘Due to the extreme cost of living right now, this rebate would be a huge help to me.
‘I was frustrated to get that news after waiting so long on the phone on multiple occasions. It’s really difficult to call them when you work, because even if you have an hour-long lunch break, it’s often not long enough for them to pick up your call.’
HMRC says the mistake on the cheque was due to the wrong information being provided by Victoria’s employer and that she had been incorrectly told by HMRC’s employee that she would need to wait so long.
After reviewing her file, however, HMRC says Victoria’s taxes were incorrectly calculated due to the error, and she is no longer owed a refund on tax overpaid.
Andy Gibbs, chartered tax adviser at TaxAssist Accountants, says backlogs have been growing. ‘We have noticed a significant reduction in service and it is ridiculous that even when we can get through it takes a long time to sort things.
‘We are having to go the long way around, writing letters to get things resolved but it is taking months. In truth, we are almost at the point of giving up on certain lines of inquiry because we know it takes so long to receive any response.’
An HMRC spokesman says more than 80 per cent of users have been happy with the online services: ‘We want to help and encourage customers to resolve their issues as quickly and easily as possible. This is often through our online services, which save people having to wait on the phone or write to us.
‘This frees up our expert advisers to help people with urgent and more complicated queries, as well as helping the small number who are unable to access our online services.’
HMRC says it received three million calls on just three issues that can easily be resolved digitally — resetting an online password, getting a tax code, and getting a National Insurance number. This required 500 people working full-time to answer those calls.
