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LATTERDAY CAPTAIN PEACOCKS (and I am assuming some knowledge of a 1970s sitcom here) will be making an appearance in your local tax office in the near future — or they will if you are lucky; let me explain.
Last summer 'a little bird' (not I should hasten to add, 'Little Bird' of Readers' Forum fame) told me that HMRC were considering the closure of their Enquiry Offices. HMRC remain keen on the classification of their taxpayers and others as 'customers' and this news did seem a little odd in that context. On hearing this news in July, I sent an enquiry to HMRC which met with the response, 'sounds like nonsense …'. It was in November that HMRC announced the closure of its offices in Paignton, Carey Street (London), Watford, Edinburgh (Haymarket House) Windsor (Crown House) and New Malden (Solar House). HMRC issued half a dozen separate press releases — one for each office — announcing the closures. The terminology was worthy of 1984's 'Newspeak'. As an example:
'HMRC has announced today that in its drive to deliver a more effective service to local businesses and individuals, eliminate duplication and improve efficiency, it is closing its office in Paignton'.
This statement reminded me of a poster that appeared in the trams that pass our office a year or so ago announcing, I seem to recall, that fares had been 'rationalised' — a new and interesting use of the word, which actually meant 'increased'. With regards to 'these office changes', HMRC went on to reassure their customers that 'this move will provide HMRC with the opportunity for a more joined up and improved service to local people and business, and better value for money for the taxpayer'. (Don't mention tax credits or tax credit fraud.) Perhaps the leases on these office buildings were coming to an end, but I would imagine that to the taxpaying customer in the street — now knocking on a locked tax office door — it is hard to see how closing (or 'changing') local offices can result in an 'improved service to local people and business'. I do not know how many other offices HMRC plans to close, but I am advised that this is a possibility under the Lyons Review, which suggests the dispersal of government jobs away from London and the South East. Quite how this and the previously mentioned office closures tie in with HMRC's commitment 'to maintaining a face to face service in all locations where we already deliver such a service' is unclear.
Your call is important to us…
Perhaps the clue is later in the office closure press releases. 'Telephone queries are dealt with by staff in contact centres and this service remains unaffected by any of the changes'. One could be forgiven for thinking that what HMRC are really trying to say is that while they want your custom, they do not actually want you to come into their 'shop' and would much prefer you to phone one of their helplines.
To be fair, HMRC do have a comprehensive list of helplines covering the specialist subjects and these can be found on their website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/contactus/helplines.htm#21. And when I queried the reliance on telephone helplines, I was told in justification that Customs had closed their local offices some years ago and that all VAT enquiries were now by telephone.
While we all have our own experiences with contact centres, I suspect that most Taxation readers have some knowledge of the subject that they are dealing with. And I wonder if this is the case with the VAT National Advice Service; are the callers mainly accountants or business people? However, will the general caller to an Enquiry Centre be looking more for an overall explanation of matters and how his tax affairs 'fit together'?
Mr Humphries, are you free?
Nevertheless, HMRC state that 'we need to start changing the way that customers interact with us. One way we can do this is by making them aware of the different channels available, each time we come into contact with them. A visit to one of our Enquiry Centres is one such opportunity'.
HMRC are therefore redesigning their Enquiry Centres and the press release (13 January 2006) announcing the changes states that 'HMRC floorwalkers will ensure that customers are met on arrival and their query assessed. They will deal with any simple enquiries, or guide customers to on-line services or telephone helplines. Some customers' needs mean that a face to face meeting is more appropriate and in these cases advisers will be available via an appointment system'. The press release does not mention it, but I understand that the appointment system will arrange a 15-minute 'face to face' meeting at some point in the following two-week period. The floorwalkers will decide whether such a meeting is appropriate. If not, they will deal with the enquiry themselves (presumably the easily-answered questions) or direct callers to leaflets, telephones or a computer Internet terminal.
OneHMRC, the departmental newsletter, gives some additional information. 'There will be banks of phone booths for access to contact centre helplines, and computers linked to our online services, as well as IT assistance from specialist staff in our larger centres'.
There are 303 enquiry centres and OneHMRC states that there are to be 100 floorwalkers, who will thus only be located in the large centres. Size is measured by 'footfall' and 'large' is understood to be where there are more than 25,000 callers per year. Small centres (dealt with in phase two) — with less than 12,000 footfalls — will only have an appointment system and speed dial telephones. Medium-sized centres will be rolled out in the third phase and how they are structured will depend upon size and layout.
Open for business
I phoned my local office to obtain more information on this with a view to finding out how the system was working. On the day of my call, I was advised that the main area office was extremely busy, but that a 'satellite' small enquiry centre a few miles away had no callers, so — especially at busy times of the year — personal callers might be better off going to a small centre. Unfortunately, it is not possible to phone these small offices to gauge the situation. Nor, I understand, is it possible to arrange an appointment by phone; potentially necessitating two visits to the office. Perhaps this is academic as my experience of phoning offices to check this hypothesis is that one cannot get through anyway!
I'm free!
At 15:45 last Thursday, I tried phoning the VAT National Advice Service Helpline (0845 010 9000). After two or three minutes of messages and choices, I held (for 'other advice') and — after automated apologies for the delay in replying at three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half minutes — my call was answered after five-and-a-half minutes. I then tried the HMRC self assessment helpline (0845 900 0444). It was engaged! It was still engaged five minutes later and for the next half hour. I tried again at 10:45 the next morning — still engaged. HMRC were definitely not 'free'.
One seems to be able to bypass the system by phoning 0870 1555 445 (a UK 'version' of the overseas number) which got a dial tone and a reply in less than a minute. When I explained what I had done, the Officer I spoke to did advise that I should not be doing this (although it does seem to work), but did acknowledge that this is a busy time of the year! These calls are dealt with by the Enquiry Centre at Chapel Wharf, which deals with overseas calls as a priority to those from the UK. The problem with the helplines — especially at this time of year — is getting through. The centralised area phone numbers also mean that one cannot now phone a local 'satellite' enquiry office for advice or an appointment.
One is tempted to look for other comparisons between HMRC and the fading 'Grace Brothers' store and Dawn Primarolo and David Varney have put their 'you've all done very well' speeches into the December issue of OneHMRC, the departmental newsletter. Let us hope that their 'store' customers will soon be able to say the same thing!
