A fifth of callers can’t get through...yet HMRC insists that’s a ‘decent’ service!

THE head of HM Revenue and Customs insisted yesterday that it offers ‘a decent service’ – despite one call in five going unanswered.

Chief executive Jim Harra told MPs he did not have the resources to ensure customer service was ‘brilliant’. Almost two years after the pandemic began, HMRC data shows only 79 per cent of callers got through to an adviser in November.

The most recent call-waiting times show taxpayers are spending more than 12 minutes on average waiting to get through. But Mr Harra told the Treasury committee he did not have the resources to ensure all calls were answered.

‘I believe the level of performance that we have reached gives taxpayers a decent service in that they can contact us, they can transact with us at peak times. Some of them may have to call back but they will get through,’ he said.

Mr Harra said that if he were a Treasury official, the taxman’s customer service department would perhaps not be where he would spend spare funds. MPs also quizzed him and his deputy Angela MacDonald over HMRC’s failure to respond to postal queries.

Mr Harra said HMRC aimed to reply to 80 per cent of these within 15 days. However, only 41 per cent are being answered within this target, down from 47.9 per cent the previous month.

He revealed that the Omicron variant and the Government’s Plan B restrictions over the winter may have added up to £3 billion to the UK’s tax debt.

HMRC previously estimated it would reach £33billion by the end of the tax year but now says it could hit £36 billion.