HMRC’s customer service levels have been the subject of criticism from a wide range of stakeholders for a number of years, particularly with regard to its telephone lines. Most recently, in January 2024, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that HMRC may have “sought to degrade its telephone service to drive taxpayers to digital channels”, and that “HMRC’s treatment of taxpayers has damaged trust in the tax system”. 

In its initial response to the PAC report, HMRC pointed to improvements in HMRC’s customer service in late 2024. This statement would appear to be supported by the latest statistics, which suggest that the government’s additional investment of £51m in HMRC in May 2024 is having the desired effect of improving HMRC’s telephone services.  

Caroline Miskin, Senior Technical Manager, ICAEW, said: “This is welcome news for taxpayers and agents, who have experienced poor customer service from HMRC for some years now. However, we would urge HMRC and the government not to get complacent. There is still much work to do to improve HMRC’s customer services, and the improved telephony service must be maintained while demand is reduced by investing in better digital services.” 

“The November 2024 spending review allocation to HMRC is expected to fund this level of customer service until March 2026.  Funding for future years depends on the three-year spending review to be delivered on 26 March 2025. ICAEW will continue to press for HMRC to be adequately funded.” 

HMRC’s performance targets 

HMRC’s performance update for the quarter ended 31 December 2024 shows that it is now meeting two of its key performance targets, for percentage of calls handled and overall customer satisfaction.

*April 2024 to December 2024. For customer correspondence cleared within 40 working days, year to date is April 2024 to September 2024.

Other performance data

The positive data on call handling appears to be part of a wider improvement in HMRC’s telephone performance. For the quarter ended 31 December 2024, the average waiting time was a little over 11 minutes, compared to over 23 minutes for 2023/24.

*April 2024 to December 2024.

ICAEW’s findings

In a joint report published in December 2024, ICAEW and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) highlighted the issues faced by agents in dealing with HMRC, drawing on a study involving 31 agent firms. Although the call connection rate during the study (88%) exceeded HMRC’s target (85%), this masked deeper issues, including that the agent’s query was fully resolved in only 34% of cases.  The report made 10 recommendations for improving HMRC’s customer services.