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Ongoing money-saving measures at HMRC will cause both staff morale and department efficiency to deteriorate, the Public and Commercial Service Union (PCS) has warned.
The organisation, which represents around 290,000 members throughout the civil service and government agencies, told the government to invest in the Revenue, rather than expecting a 15% reduction of the department’s resources outla by 2014/15. The target for cuts was set out in the Con-Lib coalition’s spending review 12 months ago.
‘The government's proposals… will only worsen staff morale and hit efficiency further,’ claimed a PCS spokesperson.
HMRC have continued to shed jobs since the department’s creation in 2005, when the Inland Revenue merged with Customs and Excise. The PCS estimates that around 26,000 positions have been axed so far; more cutbacks are expected, partly through the PaceSetter work-monitoring system designed to eliminate waste and inefficiency in the department
The Revenue is also running a programme of office closures. Between April 2005 and March 2010, 171 local offices were shut down, almost half of which were mothballed during 2009/2010 – which led to concerns earlier this year that employee survey would be boycotted in protest.
‘Thousands of experienced staff [members] have been lost, and the department says it is trying to get the “right skills in the right place”, but this is made virtually impossible as it continues the massive programme of office closures. This is compounded by the intention to cut a further 8,000 posts before the end of the spending review period,’ said the PCS spokesperson.
The union’s remarks followed yesterday’s publication of the government response to the Treasury select sub-committee's summer report into the administration and effectiveness of the Revenue.
The reaction document refutes the view of the sub-committee that ‘efficiency savings at HMRC have been partly responsible for the decline in service standards’.
