MSE News: HMRC's waiting times 'unacceptable'

sharloid

I work in payroll and there's usually someone in the office trying to contact HMRC at any given time. The average waiting time I'd say is around 20 minutes, but up to 40 isn't rare!

Legacy

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I agree with other posters. I rang on Monday (about 11am) to try and sort out a tax refund I was due and waited on the 'phone for 43 minutes!

During that time I kept thinking that I really couldn't afford to be holding on for the duration, but if I'd have rung back again, I'd have had to pay another connection charge and probably had to wait even longer. However, despite being on a premium rate number, I consoled myself with the fact that at least my refund would go towards the cost of the call... how wrong was I!? Unfortunately, they can't issue my refund without me writing in and then they'll "consider it"..... give me strength! And, no, it can't be done online. Me thinks I was fobbed off!

There was not even an apology for the length of time it took to answer the call either - surely that's just basic customer service? There are alot of people who ring HMRC who are on low incomes (like myself) and simply cannot afford to spend the pence per minute + connection charge on ringing them (and yes, I did try saynoto0870 but apparently they "tell you off" and get you to call back on their premium number, if you dare to use their 01 number - this in turn just costs even more money..)

SHAME ON YOU HMRC and thanks for nothing.

Martin Lewis- Isn't there anything you can (please) do for us to be able to claim our call costs back in these situations!? If you can claim your time for missed delivery slots, I think you should be able to claim your phone call costs due to muppets not answering the phone/being able to deal with your query.

amiehall

I'm not totally sure what you mean by them telling you off for using an 01 number... I always do when I call them and have never had a comment about it.

The reason they need you to write to them (and often the reason your tax is wrong in the first place) is that they don't always have all the relevant records available to them for you for that year and need you to provide something to them. You're not being fobbed off.

chrismac1

He very much is being fobbed off I am afraid. I've put through about 20 electronic tax refund SA returns since 5 April, at this strage only 1 is being mucked about with which is better than the average May.

Either they have the records available to process the refund or they do not. if they do all they should need is a sort code and account number, given that they typically spend at least a minute checking the ID of every caller. If they don't they should ask for the missing information.

But I agree, they often invent "procedures" - a.k.a going the long way round - to generate a paper trail - 12 week mail queues are not unusual, that is 12 weeks before the mail is OPENED not read.

Pathetic. Read my tagline at the bottom of this and every post. I stand by every single word of it.

amiehall

I have to say that this is not my experience. I have had many years of working a variety of jobs and sometimes with employers taking in excess of 3 months to produce a P45, I've paid an excessive amount of tax in the meantime. I have needed to write in with evidence to obtain a refund and it has always been because correct amounts have not been reported.

Don't get me wrong, there's no excuse for keeping people hanging on the phone for half an hour and they definitely do make work for themselves. I recently wrote to them before I went on holiday and came back to 8 different letters from HMRC. Clearly any system that generates that excessive papertrail has issues but I've always found staff on the phone polite and very helpful.

John_Pierpoint

I just wonder if other part of the financial services industry are much better - don't think they could be much worse:

"Dear sir we have sat on your request for three modest payment cheques amounting to about £600 representing the distributable income from this accountm how ever we cannot issue them as this account requires 2 signatures"

"Dear jobsworth I regret to bring this up again but my co executor has died. By way of reminder I enclose the previous 3 letters I had to write to you in 2009/10/11 by way or reminder"

Watch this space , I suppose the private jobsworth gets done in a week what it takes am HMRC jobsworth a month.

Shame it takes me an hour of what is left of my life to write a letter and another 20 minutes to deliver it to our local post box.

John.

Yes I did think of telephoning but Jobsworth had my number on the withdrawal forms, so there is no point in trying to buck the system.

nspw

smith blames the 'tory led government'. i see no evidence of this being a tory led government. yes the tories are tha largest partner in the coalition. what i see is a libral led government - the tail wagging the dog.

Pennywise

Interesting page on the Institute of Chartered Accountant's website from lots of people who've been experiencing long delays over the past few weeks:-

http://www.ion.icaew.com/Taxforum/24475

Seems that reality is a long way from the official statistics.

chrismac1

If you think it's bad now, you ain't seen nothing yet. When these numpties bring in Real Time Information they'll be bombarded with dodgy in-year data from every employer in the country. Not only will their database go into meltdown just like it does every April, their phone lines will be a quantum level worse than they are now.

It's stupid decisions like bringing in RTI at 100 mph - or merging Customs and Excise and Revenue at 100mph - that cause the really big bottlenecks.

BillieB

I am due a tax rebate and submitted my documentation on 1 April... still waiting for a rebate and have spent over £20.00 on calls, most recently waiting 20 minutes to get an answer after giving up earlier after 15 minutes.

Very poor.. and still no answer!!

:mad: