HMRC Accused of Running Down Phone Service and Damaging Trust

A parliamentary committee accused the UK’s tax authority of damaging trust in the tax system by deliberately degrading its customer services.

In a Wednesday report, the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee criticized His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs’ handling of telephone complaints. HMRC answered just two-thirds of customers’ attempts to speak to an adviser during 2023-24, an all-time low, with average call waiting times exceeding 23 minutes, according to the report.

The committee said that HMRC’s plans to focus on digital came at the expense of its telephone service, saying that the tax authority “has been too willing ...