Chaos at HMRC leaves taxpayers out of pocket

Pity the taxman. As reviled professions go, it’s up there with estate agents, traffic wardens and, er, journalists.

Now comes the news that more than three million people may have paid the wrong tax after chaos at HM Revenue & Customs left callers waiting for over an hour to speak to staff last year. In a stinging report, the National Audit Office said that the quality of service at HMRC ‘collapsed’ over an 18-month period between 2014 and 2015.

Call waiting times tripled during that time, as some customers were kept on hold for up to an hour. One in five callers – 4.2 million people – hung up after waiting an average of 16 minutes each for an answer.

As well as the inconvenience and cost to the individual, there’s also the matter of the impact on the public purse. Using HMRC’s own criteria, it valued people’s time at an average of £17 an hour. As a result, callers wasted the following amounts: £66 million while waiting on the phone; £21 million talking to HMRC; £10 million on the cost of the call.