LONDON: Plans to move HM Revenue and Customs services online could lead to another potentially “disastrous decline” in customer service, MPs have warned.
Customer service staff are being cut by about a third as HMRC expects more people to access services digitally.
But a report by MPs says it is “not convinced” the tax authority will not repeat the “collapse” of 2014-15, when call waiting times tripled.
HMRC says average waits are now five minutes and it aims to get that down.
The report by the Commons public accounts committee notes that HMRC, which has to save £98m by 2021, expects to employ 16% fewer staff and close 137 offices. Those remaining will be largely working in 13 regional centres.
The tax authority is aiming to make most processes automated and have more staff focusing on specialist work to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion.
“HMRC expects that, as it introduces more online services, a channel shift will occur resulting in a reduction in the demand for phone calls as more people will be able to meet their needs through online services,” the MPs report said.
But the committee noted the “collapse” of customer services in 2014-15 after 5,600 staff were made redundant.
It highlighted that during an 18-month period, call waiting times tripled and some customers were kept on hold for up to an hour.
The MPs said there was an “enormous challenge” ahead for HMRC, while it also restructures its business, relocates many of its staff and moves to a new IT contract.
Having already lost its chief digital and information officer, any more departures of key staff would be damaging, they warned.
