HMRC boss gives update on helpline closures after taxpayer backlash

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has said it still plans to close its helplines despite a previously announced u-turn.

Last month, the government department said it would introduce a series of change to encourage customers to seek online advice first. As part of this, the self-assessment helplines were set to be closed for a period of time.

The plan was then put on hold shortly after the initial announcement following backlash from taxpayers. The matter, however, does not seem to be put to rest after HMRC's chief executive, Jim Harra, told the Treasury Select Committee that the helpline closure will still be a "part of our strategy".

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He added: “I’m very disappointed that we have not been able to take what I regard as a modernising step at this point.” MPs questioned whether HMRC's extensive delays and poor customer service performance could be blamed by the department's hybrid working environment.

Despite this, Mr Harra said: "Our monitoring tells us that for both our helpline staff, our web chat advisors and also staff on our post teams, they are as effective at home as they are in the office. So I’m confident, whilst I want to make sure that colleagues comply with working from home policy I’m confident an answer to our problem is not to change the balance of working from home and working in the office.

“We know that colleagues answering phone calls at home all have the same productivity as colleagues answering in the office. Whilst we are continuing to implement our office working attending strategy that is not going to make a material difference in the short term to performance of our helplines.”

Mr Harra continued to defend the plan, arguing that customers would have found it easier to contact HMRC through the closures. “There’s little doubt that if we had been able to proceed, the evidence from last year’s trials indicates that we would have been able to help more vulnerable and digitally excluded customers because the route through to an adviser for them would not have been blocked by other callers," he said.

Since the U-turn, HMRC has continued to discuss the issue of meeting taxpayer needs. Mr Harra said that the department will need additional funding to secure more helpline staff.

He said: "If I don’t get additional funding then I will have to look at whether I have to reprioritise something else"

Despite the U-turn, HMRC previously said it would continue to encourage customers to access online advice through websites or the HMRC app.