HMRC plans ANOTHER closure of its self-assessment helpline as officials are grilled by Treasury Select Committee

HMRC says it will pilot another closure of its self-assessment helpline following a trial over the summer, which was widely criticised by accountants and business owners .

It comes as the Treasury Select Committee grilled senior HMRC officials and board members this afternoon as part of its ongoing scrutiny into the work of the taxman.

In June, the tax office announced it was closing its self-assessment helpline for three months to trial directing queries from the helpline to the department’s digital services. 

It said it was piloting a ‘seasonal model’ because the helpline receives fewer calls over the summer. But HMRC gave self-assessment taxpayers just two days notice before closing for the entire summer. 

HMRC is planning another closure of its self-assessment helpline despite widespread criticism 

This is Money has heard from a number of readers who have been affected by the sudden closure of the self-assessment helpline.

We revealed one woman had been hit with fines worth hundreds of pounds for late tax returns, despite not being self-employed for four years.

After six months of trying to sort out the issue, she tried to call the self-assessment line, only to find out it was closed for the summer. 

Speaking to the Treasury Committee today, HMRC’s second permanent secretary Angela MacDonald said: ‘We decided that we were going to trial a seasonal model. 

‘We had put extensive work into preparation for the trial but it took us some time to make a decision on the communication, so we were somewhat late on communicating to customers.

‘It definitely wasn’t part of the plan [to give the public two days’ notice],’ she added. 

‘By the time we had managed to get our way through all of the range of stakeholders who we needed to talk to internally… we ran out of the time we would have ideally had to communicate further.’

Former Virgin Money boss, Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who is now an HMRC board member, said the board was ‘aware of the plan’ for the closure but were ‘not aware that the communication was delayed in the way that it was’.

The outcome of the summer closure of the helpline is likely to be published in the new year, but initial reports suggest customer satisfaction dropped off significantly.

In a letter to the Committee, HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said customer satisfaction for the online services helpdesk fell from 29.4 per cent to 24.7 per cent year-on-year.

Satisfaction for the self-assessment webchat also fell, from 76.2 per cent to 70.1 per cent year-on-year.

He said this is likely a ‘temporary phenomenon during the time it took to increase capacity there’.

Speaking to the Committee on Wednesday, Harra said: ‘The demand for online services helpline exceeded our forecasts. Initially in our trial we did not have sufficient advisers on that helpline to deal with the demand.

‘Without running the trial, [forecasting demand] was effectively a guess. The demand on the OSH was higher than we forecast, therefore we needed to train up and deploy additional advisers. 

‘In the initial period in the trial, that meant poorer service levels for that helpline and therefore reduced customer satisfaction. As the trial went on, we added more resources and customer satisfaction levels increased.’

While HMRC has not yet finished its evaluation of its pilot closure, MacDonald said they were planning a further closure of the self-assessment closure. 

HMRC did not respond when asked when the closure might be, or whether it would be before January’s self-assessment filing deadline. 

Harra added that HMRC is ‘not resourced to deliver customer service standards through the traditional channels of phone and post’ which is why they have to ‘reduce contact demand push it onto digital self-service.’

‘The challenge is tougher and tougher. Increasing number of taxpayers means increasing contact. We don’t have increasing resources’.

We’ve contacted HMRC for comment. 

Are you a frustrated HMRC employee or a business owner who has been left in the dark? Email editor@thisismoney.co.uk with HMRC in the subject line