- AJ Bell FOI shows the number of telephone calls answered by HMRC has halved in a decade – down to 16 million in 2023-24
- Number of ‘deflected’ calls is at its highest since 2015
- Agents are still spending over 4 million hours on the phone, which highlights how queries are taking longer to resolve
- With the 31 January deadline for filing self-assessment approaching, many taxpayers are likely to be filing their tax return for the first time
- HMRC hit back following a scathing report from MPs last week and called accusations of deliberately poor service on its phone lines ‘completely baseless’
Charlene Young, pensions and savings expert at AJ Bell, comments:
“Figures from a freedom of information request made by AJ Bell show that the number of calls answered by HMRC has fallen from 33.1 million in the 2014-15 tax year to just 16.2 million in 2023-24 (see table).
“The taxman spent over 4 million hours handling telephone calls in the 2023-24 tax year, a figure which has stayed roughly steady over the same period, suggesting the average call is taking around twice as long to resolve.
“Once someone gets through, it’s taking an average of 15 minutes to deal with their call, which could be a result of more complex queries and more people getting dragged into the UK tax system.
“Around 44% of calls were answered in the 2023-24 financial year, compared to 60% back in 2021-22. Over the same three years, the percentage of calls deflected has jumped from 24% to 34%. HMRC deflects queries it considers can be resolved through its digital services, sometimes by playing an automated message before immediately ending the call itself.
“We’ll need to wait and see if the extra £51 million stumped up by ministers last summer to keep telephone lines open delivers in the long run. The extra cash was promised after taxpayers spent nearly 800 years on hold back in 2022-23, when the average hold time was 16 minutes.
“With the 31 January deadline looming, taxpayers need to get their returns filed, or make sure they tell HMRC why they believe they don’t need to file this year and get their records updated. Those who don’t face penalties starting at £100 initially (even, in some cases, if there is no tax to pay), with interest due on tax owed.
“HMRC reported that on 23 January, 3.2 million people had yet to file their tax return. Those struggling with the system are running out of time to get their queries answered, especially if they are going to try and get through on the phone.
How else can you contact HMRC?
“HMRC has tried to push more people to digital services and to ‘self-serve’ in recent times, as most queries can be answered quickly using existing online help and resources. In fact, a report from the Public Accounts Committee last week accused HMRC of being ‘too willing to let its telephone services fail in the hope this forces people to use its digital services instead’.
“As well as written guidance on the government website, there are online tools, community forums and YouTube videos answering common tax and system queries.
“HMRC say that the quickest way to get help is by contacting the HMRC digital assistant (webchat), which can help with a range of self-assessment and tax payment queries. For queries that cannot be answered this way you can ask to speak to an HMRC adviser.
“If you’ve already lodged a query, HMRC say you can check when to expect a reply here and those who might need extra support can go to a dedicated webpage with tips and resources to help.
“Lots of people benefit from appointing an agent to help them with their tax and file returns on their behalf. It’s unlikely that an agent will take on any last-minute filers now, but it could be a way of taking the stress out of tax and getting organised for next year.”
HMRC call handling:
Source: AJ Bell/HMRC. Freedom of Information request. Includes calls deflected, busy messages, calls abandoned while queuing, calls answered by an adviser, and total number of calls received.
Source: AJ Bell analysis of HMRC data
