HMRC to shut phone helplines for six months every year

HMRC has come under fire for plans to shut down crucial phone lines for six months a year in a drive to push customers online.

From April 8 until Sept 29 taxpayers will be unable to call HMRC for help with their tax return, a move it said would be repeated every year to allow “helpline advisers to focus support where it is most needed”.

HMRC has been focused on shifting customers online as it struggles to cope with a huge rise in people needing help with their tax affairs, with around three million taxpayers set to be dragged into the 40pc income tax bracket over the next five years owing to the freeze on thresholds. The announcement comes weeks after HMRC’S customer service was said to have hit an “all-time low” by the public accounts committee, an influential group of MPS.

The move has led to concern for “well-meaning” taxpayers, with Sir Jacob Rees-mogg, the former business secretary, saying: “HMRC has an obligation to collect the right amount of tax, neither more nor less than provided for by Parliament. To this end it ought to provide easily accessible advice. Failing to do so is a dereliction of duty.”

Harriett Baldwin, the Treasury select committee chairman, said: “It is a great shame HMRC have decided now is the time to essentially close down any avenues for people to contact them over the phone for huge parts of the year.

“These are well-meaning people just trying to get their taxes right. The committee welcomes efforts to make the tax system more efficient but HMRC has not yet demonstrated that the department or the public are ready to make such a monumental change to how they resolve tax issues.”

The committee, which scrutinises the tax office, is expected to discuss its response and next steps today.

Baroness Altmann, the former pensions minister, said that special provisions needed to be made for older people who cannot get online.

“Many older people have started receiving late penalty notifications for not making a tax return and will not be able to communicate online,” she said.

“I hope there will be adequate replacement for elderly people who are worried about their tax position and

need human contact rather than just digital. The rises in pensions while the tax threshold has been frozen is tipping more pensioners into the tax net but many will not know this as they have never made a tax return before.”

The closure will coincide with an “annualised hours” trial involving 100 customer service staff working a threeday week over the summer period, before working extra hours over the winter.

HMRC’S decision to cut the helpline follows its summer closure between June 12 and Sept 4 last year. The trial was criticised by accountancy bodies and MPS, but HMRC insisted it was “successful”. Its figures showed nearly one million calls went unanswered in January, the tax office’s busiest month, with people scrambling to file for self-assessment tax returns on time in order to avoid automatic late fines. On average those who got through had to wait 25 minutes before HMRC answered the phone.

The Chartered Institute for Taxation said it was concerned the trial was behind a drop of 180,000 people filing on time. Gary Ashford, of the CIOT, said: “If last year’s announcement of the summer closure was a ‘flashing indicator’ that HMRC can’t cope, today’s announcements are a blinding light.”

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said the decision was “disappointing”, while Victoria Todd, of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, said HMRC’S online services were “not yet at the standard required to support a forced channel shift to digital”.

Rev Scott Watts, 57, a Telegraph reader, said he has been chasing HMRC for months over a £1,000 tax rebate after moving from effective self-employment in a vicarage to full-time employment at a hospital trust in Cambridge. He said he endured an hourlong wait on the phone before an HMRC adviser confirmed the amount he was owed, saying it had 10 weeks to repay him. He learnt HMRC would be shutting its helplines over summer while on hold again yesterday.

“Once they have your money they can do what they like with it and run to their own timelines,” he said. “It’s left me feeling like these are unaccountable people.”

Angela Macdonald, HMRC’S second permanent secretary, said: “Changing our services to encourage customers to self-serve online will allow our helpline advisers to focus support where it is most needed.”