Half of HMRC Whitehall staff working from home despite customer complaints

HALF of HM Revenue and Customs staff in Whitehall are still working from home, despite complaints over customer service.

Only 53 per cent of civil servants working in HMRC’S headquarters were at their desks in an average week between January and March, a Telegraph

analysis of official data shows. At the start of this year, waiting times to speak to an HMRC adviser on the phone hit a record high of 25 minutes for those who got through.

Also in January, a damning report by the spending watchdog the National Audit Office found that the organisation had been getting its sums wrong on tax breaks. In March, HMRC was forced to halt plans to push customers online by closing its phone lines for almost six months a year after Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, intervened.

Across the whole of the year from March 27 2023 to March 22 this year, just 48 per cent of civil servants working in HMRC’S headquarters at 100 Parliament Street were at their desks in an average week.

Attendance peaked at 62 per cent in the week beginning Dec 11. The only

other week over the year in which attendance was at more than 60 per cent was that of Jan 15, while it plummeted to 34 per cent in the first week of this year.

Apart from the week of Christmas Day – in which five per cent of desks were occupied – the worst week for attendance was that of May 29 last year, with an average of 32 per cent of desks used by staff.

Although 100 Parliament Street is not used for handling customer calls, MPS raised concerns about the numbers working from home.

Sir Jacob Rees-mogg, a former business secretary, said: “The lesson is obvious.

HMRC is failing to deliver a service to the people, and they’re not going into work. They’re wasting taxpayers’ money because this is a Grade II star office space in London, which costs a significant amount of money. They should either be using 100 Parliament Street or they should move out.”

An HMRC spokesman said: “We expect all office-based colleagues to now spend 60 per cent of their working time in the office. Hybrid working is part of our approach to being a modern and flexible employer.

“Our colleagues are held to the same standards, whether they are working from an HMRC building or from home.”