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HMRC will spend £45m to improve their call-handling performance, the department has announced.
The funds will pay for 3,000 additional staff to join public-facing service teams, which will be further expanded by around 2,000 Revenue employees transferred from other areas to help in the run-up to the tax credits deadline on 31 July.
The department has also bought new equipment that allows calls to be switched to offices outside of contact centres, allowing more HMRC workers to answer the phone.
HMRC will spend £45m to improve their call-handling performance, the department has announced.
The funds will pay for 3,000 additional staff to join public-facing service teams, which will be further expanded by around 2,000 Revenue employees transferred from other areas to help in the run-up to the tax credits deadline on 31 July.
The department has also bought new equipment that allows calls to be switched to offices outside of contact centres, allowing more HMRC workers to answer the phone.
Only 73% of calls to the taxman were answered during 2014/15, official figures show, with some months falling well short of the 80% target. As many as one in five taxpayers at times were unable to even reach a caller queue.
Revenue chief executive Lin Homer accepted standards were not good enough. She said, “Our call performance hasn’t been up to scratch, and we apologise to all those customers [sic] who struggled to get through.
“Good customer [sic] service is an absolute priority for HMRC.”
George Bull, Baker Tilly senior tax partner, said the diversion of £45m to taxpayer services will come as a relief to everyone who has fallen victim to the taxman’s “woeful” call-handling.
But he added a warning: “The problem is not just about getting through. It’s also about the quality of the service provided. Simply getting more people to answer the phones will not necessarily solve the problem.”
