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HMRC have reduced the number of staff members working on National Insurance (NI) administration, with levels falling between 16% and 31% between 2006/07 and 2009/10.
In the area with responsibility for maintaining NI records there were 1,200 staffing reductions, according to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO).
During this period there were ‘no significant operating failures across the system of collecting and recording NI contributions’, and in some cases productivity in processing information was increased.
However, the Revenue missed its accuracy target for 2009/10, achieving 93% instead of 97%. The NAO paper suggests in this respect that the department should ‘ensure standards of accuracy for NI records are applied consistently across all operations and take account of the longer term costs and consequences of inaccuracies in processing’.
As to efficiency, the NAO says improvements often depend on the availability of funding for IT enhancements, and that ‘considering the system in its entirety would help secure savings’.
