HMRC service standards remain the key concern of the Charter Stakeholder group
By Susan Cattell, Head of Tax Technical Policy
1 August 2024
HMRC service levels remain the key concern for the Charter Stakeholder Group. We outline the group’s contribution to the annual report on how HMRC has performed against its Charter standards.
HMRC’s performance against its Charter
HMRC has a Charter that sets out the standards of behaviour and values it should demonstrate in dealing with taxpayers. It must produce an annual report reviewing its performance against these standards.
ICAS belongs to the Charter Stakeholder Group (CSG) which is made up of representatives of the tax community. We raise your feedback about HMRC service standards at the regular meetings of the CSG and we contribute to the formal CSG contribution to the annual report.
Charter Report 2023 to 2024
The report was published on 30 July 2024. In his introductory message Sir Jim Harra (First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HMRC) acknowledged that this year HMRC faced serious challenges in delivering customer services because of financial pressures and the need to manage a growing number of customers with complex affairs. This meant that some people struggled to get the help and support they needed.
Jen Tippin (Chair of HMRC’s Customer Experience Committee) also noted that helpline performance was well below the service standards expected and many customers were both disappointed and frustrated with their experience. Significant improvements have to be made quickly.
Jim Harra specifically referred to the proposals to close or restrict several helplines from April 2024, which had to be dropped because of widespread concern about the plans amongst stakeholders and customers. However, he went on to say that HMRC continues to make progress on expanding and improving online services. We (and other professional bodies) have given feedback to HMRC about areas where online services for agents need to be improved.
Charter Stakeholder Group contribution: Service levels remain the key concern
The CSG provided an overall assessment of HMRC’s performance in section 4 of the report and commentary on HMRC’s performance against each Charter Standard in appendix 3.
Many of you completed the CSG survey earlier this year to tell us about your experience of HMRC’s performance. We ran the same survey as in 2023, to allow for comparison with last year’s scores. We asked respondents to give a score out of 10 for HMRC’s performance against each of the Charter standards, with 1 being the lowest possible score and 10 being the highest. We also asked, for each standard, what HMRC does well, and what they could improve. We were pleased by the high level of engagement this year, with respondents taking an average of eight minutes and thirteen seconds to complete the survey and providing 12,524 freeform comments. We have shared the full results of the survey with HMRC.
As with last year’s report, complaints about HMRC’s service levels dominate the feedback and heavily influence the scores. ‘Being responsive’ scored the lowest of the Charter standards, with an average score of just 2.4 out of 10. ‘Making things easy’ and ‘getting things right’ scored slightly higher, but still poorly, at 2.8 and 3.5 respectively. Consistent with last year, these three standards are by far the lowest scoring, which is disappointing as between them they represent the ‘health’ of the tax system.
Typical feedback indicated that, while straightforward issues are often dealt with well, more complex issues are difficult to resolve: “Most agents contact the revenue because they require assistance with something beyond the basic understanding that is generally covered online - this is something that is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain” is a representative comment. And the challenges of shifting taxpayers and agents from phones to online interaction was summed up with: “If I was able to do it via the website, I would not be wasting my life on hold”.
The remaining five Charter standards typically address the context in which HMRC operate, and these scores are higher, particularly around mutual respect and data security, the latter scoring the highest average score in the survey of 6.8. Interestingly, taxpayers scored HMRC lower than agents in each of these five categories, and that is something HMRC may wish to reflect on.
Our survey also addressed awareness of the Charter, and HMRC’s accountability against it. 78% of agents were aware of the HMRC Charter, compared to 68% of taxpayers. This represents a slight reduction in agents’ awareness, but a significant increase (of 12%) from last year in taxpayers’ awareness. While relatively modest numbers of taxpayers completed the survey, it does suggest that HMRC’s work to promote its Charter is paying off.
88% of respondents do not think that HMRC is held sufficiently accountable for its performance against the Charter, with only 3% considering they are (the remainder are unsure).
ICAS calls for investment in HMRC to improve service levels
Ahead of the general election, we published our ‘key asks’ of an incoming government. These included a call for more investment in HMRC so that it could improve its customer service levels and deliver user-friendly systems – something we have repeatedly called for in recent years. The Charter Annual Report reinforces the need for urgent action to tackle the problems at HMRC.
We were pleased to be asked to attend a roundtable meeting on 24 July with James Murray MP Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (XST), to discuss how the tax system can support growth. The XST now has responsibility for HMRC, so it was a good opportunity to highlight our priorities for action.
Let us know your views
We respond to tax consultations and calls for evidence and attend meetings with HMRC at which service levels, delays and other issues you raise with us are discussed. We welcome input from members to inform our work; email tax@icas.com to share your insights and feedback.
