What improvements would you like to see from HMRC

dori2o

I'm involved with the latest HMRC trial which will see an end to the current working systems of having seperate Contact Centres and Back Office staff working to completely different processes and rules on what can and cannot be dealt with by each part of the same department.

It is essentially finally bringing the 2 areas of Personal Tax back together under the same umbrella. It will also see a returhn to whole case working in a majority of cases.

As part of the trial team we are asked to submit ideas/suggestions/resolutions to help improve the service and to set the standards for the new Customer Service Centres (CSC) which will start to replace the current 2 tier system in early 2016.

For the first time that I can remember the business is actually listening to those pople who work on the fromt line and allowing them to distinguish how the new service will work rather than bringing in their own ideas, most of which are often unworkable and frustrating not only for the customer but also the staff doing the work.

Since the trial started a few weeks ago there have been a large number of suggestions made to improve the service, and for once the people in charge of the busness are being true to their word and are making changes and fully investigating how these ideas are to be implemented.

Fort example the recent IT upgrade that allows all staff to see a scanned copy of all post that has been received means that staff in the contact centre can see the letter if a customer calls to see what isd happening with it, and as long as it is within their scope of work they can process the letter and deal with the query.

Staff on the CSC trial can go that bit furher and can work post that is outside of their normal scope of work. For instance if a Tax Return has been received but not yet processed, the Contact Centre would only be able to provide an estimate of when the tax return should be processed by or maybe send a referral to the back office to process it as an urgent case. The CSC trial team are able to process the return there and then, giving the details of the calulation to the taxpayer over the phone and issuing any refund or arranging for balancing payment to be coded the following year immediately.

It's just one example, but it shows how the intention is to remove the barriers between what the back office can/cant do and what contact centres can/can't do.

Another for our accountant friends is the issue of 64-8 authorising agents. These are also scanned and so an officer in the contact centre can update the records with the information on the 64-8, meaning that even if the record hasn't been updated when the accountant calls, so long as the officer in the contact centre can see the 64-8 on the digital mail system, then not only can they speak to the agent/accountant but also they can update the record so that the agent knows the authority is fully recorded.

Essentially the idea is to finally develop a system which is truly a resolved upon first contact system, no matter how that contact is made. To see an end to the high number of referrals from one area to another and allow all those of the same grade to do the same jobs to the same standards.

By having everyone trained to the same standards on all subjects it will also means that almost everyone can do almost everything, so there will no onger be just telephone staffand just written correspondence staff, Everyone will do both, This should lead to reduced waiting times for both telephone and post contact.

Other submitted suggestions include email contact from HMRC to Customer, i.e. sending the custoimer forms, letters, calculations by email when it is requested to be sent that way. There is already a seperate secure email trrail taking place which I believe is linked to the online Tax Account which would see the introduction finally of email contact from customer to hmrc.

An idea to enable those with very simple tax affairs who are within Self Assessment to be able to file their returns over the telephone (A trial was done some years back, 2004/05 I think, but it wasn't taken up at that time)

There's also a real push to increase the number and type on contact platforms. An online live help service is being looked at for those who file online. You will be able to type in your question whilst live online and you will get a response from an actual person and not a computer selecting the best stock answer based on key words in your question. For instance if you are unsure on where a particular item goes on the return, or are having a problem with an error message on a particular box.

Webcasts are being developed and another live help system which provides face to face help via a webcam.

So, what problems have you had with the service that is currently offered and what things do you thing HMRC could do to improve its service.

Please note that we do not receive any rewards or recognition for submitting these suggestions or ideas. The reward for us who work on the front line (IMO) is that our jobs becomes more interesting and more fulfilling, being able to work a case in its entirity, instead of doing bits and passing it on to someone else, often someone else of the same grade who simply has other bits of training we havent had.

Obviously the big problem I expect most pople to have is the call waiting times/post turnaround times. There is no one single suggestion that will solve that, but the idea is that the new service will work better and more efficiently and so as a natural consequence the waiting times will reduce anyway.

I'm asking you to help us provide a better service for you and I can guarantee that any genuine suggestions that are made which have nopt already been suggested or put into place already I will put forward.

All I ask is that the responses I get are genuine and that this thread is not used as a way to insult people or make unsuitable remarks.

If that starts to happen then I will ask the Moderators to close the topic. I've not come on here to be abused or insulted. I'm trying to help make changes for the better of everyone. I've not had permission from HMRC to do this and so there is some personal risk involved, but this is for the greater good.

As I said, for once it's the people who are doing the work on the front line who are driving the changes, lets take this opportunity and work together.

If you would prefer please feel free to PM me.

Thanks

Savvy_Sue

Well, all I can say is that these changes are LONG overdue, and I hope the trial succeeds and becomes the reality.

chrismac1

For me easily the most important change HMRC can implement right now is to have secure e-mail communication as the standard means by which the public makes contact with HMRC. After all, when I register new clients for taxes this is how it is done. The benefits of this are:

1. It would be a structured e-mail so could be forwarded to a team who can deal with it.

2. HMRC could keep the sender informed on progress, just as with registration for taxes.

3. The sender would not spend 50 minutes hanging on the phone.

4. Call volumes would drop massively, thus freeing up staff to do more productive work.

This change is long overdue, better late than never. Oh, and NO - repeat NO - job losses UNTIL customer satisfaction levels improve substantially. Just as no tax credit cuts until the minimum wage is high enough that "strivers" are not having their pay cut.

Boy George is putting the cart before the horse too much methinks.

dori2o

blondebubbles wrote: »

Sorry, post was fairly long so you might have answered it already but with the new scanned post, can the staff see copies of letters issued to customers or just letters sent in?

Eg a tax credit award letter. HMRC have their own version on the system of what is on the award letter. But when a customer calls and says "I don't understand page 4, can you explain it to me", the adviser doesn't see a copy of the actual award to know what area they are referring to.

The answer is Yes, and NO.

Let me explain.

Where a standard issue form such as a P2 tax coding notice, P800 tax calculation, or a TC601/TC602 Tax Credits decision/award letter, which is issued through the computer system itself then at this time NO staff cannot see exactly what is sent. They can see what information is on the award notice etc, but do not see it as it is set out for the customer.

The good news is that this is already one area that is being looked into with the idea being that the staff will have exactly the same view as the custmer when it comes to these forms.

However, where a free hand letter has been written by a member of staff, or a pro forma letter has been sent by a member of staff, i.e. they have filled in the necessary details and printed the letter themselves, then there is the possibility to search for and view these letters, BUT, only if they have been issued using the Central Print Service.

Everyone is supposed to now have this service, but I know for a fact that some people don't due to IT problems.

You can generally tell if the letter has been issued by the central print service as it won't be signed. The reason for this is that there isn't the opportunity to sign it as the officer never actually prints the letter, (and they decided that the cost was too high to justify using digital signatures which would have to be renewed each time there were staff changes) it is sent to a central print facility which prints the letter and puts it in an envelope, seals it etc etc...

If the letter you receive is signed then that indicates that the officer would not have issued it through the central print service.

Again however, there is a process in place to have everyone using the central print service asap.

Pennywise

Definitely make more use of email. Both phone and post are old concepts, long left behind by many other businesses and organisations. Phone and letters should be available for those who need them, but the internet can be massively exploited to improve the HMRC experience for all.

The few areas where taxpayers/agents can make communications directly either via online forms or structured email work incredibly well. Eg requesting a correction of a PAYE code or registering for SA in the first place. Most people want a quick and simple way of contacting HMRC. A structured email collects the required information and sends it to the right person to deal with - far more efficient than writing a letter when some detail may be omitted or making a phone call. Get structured emails rolled-out to the vast majority of reasons why someone would want to contact HMRC.

But also, more use of email for replies back from HMRC. It's a bit antiquated to send HMRC info by email only to get an old-fashioned paper letter back some weeks later. Why not email back instead - would save a fortune in letter processing & postage and would leave an even better electronic trail on the file as to what's been said and done, not to mention speed up the entire process, start to finish.

Plain crazy that Joe Bloggs writes a letter on his PC, prints it, posts it, HMRC scan it, and eventually someone reads it on a PC. Then the HMRC person creates a response on a PC, it's printed somewhere, posted, eventually arrives at Joe Bloggs who then scans it and shreds it. Far easier for Joe to send an email and for HMRC to reply by email.

dori2o

chrismac1 wrote: »

For me easily the most important change HMRC can implement right now is to have secure e-mail communication as the standard means by which the public makes contact with HMRC. After all, when I register new clients for taxes this is how it is done. The benefits of this are:

1. It would be a structured e-mail so could be forwarded to a team who can deal with it.

2. HMRC could keep the sender informed on progress, just as with registration for taxes.

3. The sender would not spend 50 minutes hanging on the phone.

4. Call volumes would drop massively, thus freeing up staff to do more productive work.

This change is long overdue, better late than never. Oh, and NO - repeat NO - job losses UNTIL customer satisfaction levels improve substantially. Just as no tax credit cuts until the minimum wage is high enough that "strivers" are not having their pay cut.

Boy George is putting the cart before the horse too much methinks.

There is already a secure e-mail trial ongoing which is being dealt with I believe by officers in Cardiff.

Hopefully the trial is sucessful and e-mail can become another contact platform.

Just to advise regarding telephone contact. We have a company assisting us who has looked at various call statistics across the contact centre network, and it is their view that just over 30% of the calls we get daily are related to progress chasing/following up on previous calls/correspondence.

With the trial intended to make the first point of contact the one and only contact required to resolve the majority of issues, there is expected to be a natural reduction in call numbers.

However, there has to be the expectation that because the staff are able to do more on the phone, i.e. work a whole case start to finish, that the time it takes to deal with someone on the phone is going to increase, especially in the short term as people will be doing things and following processes they have never done before.

So whilst in the long term it is the intention to bring waiting times down, that may not be the short term reality. But as more staff are freed up from doing just one process in the back office to being able to do all processes and answer calls, post, emails, live help, etc then the call times will reduce.

What email will do however, coupled with the proposed ability for customers to deal with various tax issues via self service on their online tax account, i.e. update tax codes, benefits in kind (car benefit etc), request repayments, is provide the customer with an alternative contact method that they know will be dealt with within a certain amount of time, although I doubt it will be a same day let alone same hour response when contacting via email.

Whilst the call times currently are unacceptable along with the service as a whole, it is my belief (not that of HMRC) that if people know that their one telephone call will result in the resolution of their query then they wouldn't mind waiting for a period of time on the phone.

What I wouldn't want is for people to have the expectation that they will be waiting just a few seconds or just a few minutes.

The reality of the business coupled with the cuts still to come, especially when the changes announced yesterday are put in place (closing 137 local offices and having just 13 regional centres where the vast majority of work will be done including customer service centres which could lead to thousands of job losses on top of the 10,000 staff who have already gone), means that there will always be a waiting time on the phone, but it's a case of balancing that waiting time against the needs and expectations of the customer and ensuring that we continue to maintain a 'once and done' attitude to the work we do.

Why should a customer have to call twice, or be referred to another team/department when the person they are speaking to has the ability, the knowledge and the enthusiasm to work the whole case start to finish.

What the customer does not see is the benefit that the staff get from this.

The staff, especially on the front line, are much maligned by the public and the professionals who HMRC deal with. We've seen such attacks on staff on this very forum. They're often referred to as lazy, incompetent, robots, plebs etc etc, but the fact is for the majority on the helpline they can do the majority of work required to clear cases there and then, but they have been stopped by the processes that have been in place over the past 15 years or so which has limited the scope of they can do on the phone.

This will open it up completely and even in the short space of time that the trial has been running, those working on the trial teams have all reported higher moral, better job satisfaction, and a willingness to make this work and improve the service.

I can tell you as a matter of fact that it is much better to hear a customer on the phone who is happy (and at this time somewhat shocked) that they have had their query resolved in full there and then, and some have even said to me that the waiting time of 35,45,55 minutes or whatever it was has been entirely worth it given their past experiences and having expected that they would have to wait for other correspondence, or wait for a call back, or wait for a referral to be send and then dealt with within 15 working days etc etc etc.

So we can see that already the new philosophy is working. Long may that last.

dori2o

Pennywise wrote: »

Definitely make more use of email. Both phone and post are old concepts, long left behind by many other businesses and organisations. Phone and letters should be available for those who need them, but the internet can be massively exploited to improve the HMRC experience for all.

The few areas where taxpayers/agents can make communications directly either via online forms or structured email work incredibly well. Eg requesting a correction of a PAYE code or registering for SA in the first place. Most people want a quick and simple way of contacting HMRC. A structured email collects the required information and sends it to the right person to deal with - far more efficient than writing a letter when some detail may be omitted or making a phone call. Get structured emails rolled-out to the vast majority of reasons why someone would want to contact HMRC.

I think there is already a process in place for this, but maybe it doesn't go deep enough (Being a former Contact Centre adviser it's not something that I would have dealt with). I'm going to take a better look at this when I'm back in work next week to see exactly what we do and dont have in place now, and see if I can take this forward any further.

But also, more use of email for replies back from HMRC. It's a bit antiquated to send HMRC info by email only to get an old-fashioned paper letter back some weeks later. Why not email back instead - would save a fortune in letter processing & postage and would leave an even better electronic trail on the file as to what's been said and done, not to mention speed up the entire process, start to finish.

Plain crazy that Joe Bloggs writes a letter on his PC, prints it, posts it, HMRC scan it, and eventually someone reads it on a PC. Then the HMRC person creates a response on a PC, it's printed somewhere, posted, eventually arrives at Joe Bloggs who then scans it and shreds it. Far easier for Joe to send an email and for HMRC to reply by email.

This is an idea that was put forward last week.

I agree that it is crazy that we cannot issue correspondence by email.

The argument has always been that it is too insecure, and to an extent I can see that, the number of scams run by email in every walk of life is astounding, and for years we've been trying to prevent this ever happening in HMRC, because as everyone knows, if something does go wrong, regardless of the facts, it will be HMRC's fault.

However, I digress....

The argument put forward last week was that we can accept by telephone, assuming that the customer/their agent has passed the security process, changes of address and in cases where correspondence is required urgently, by fax.

There is no difference in many peoples opinion between accepting a change of address or a fax number, and accepting an email address in exactly the same way.

There is absolutely no way to verify that the customer actually lives at the address they provide other than by the fact that they have passed security and so we allow them to change those details.

The same with faxes. The rules we run by is that the customer/agent must have access to the fax machine which they provide the number for, so that they themselves can receive the fax when it is sent.

But again we cannot verify this, and in the majority of cases it's entirely possible that the number given is for the office of their accountant, their financial adviser, their mortgage broker, bank manager etc etc etc, and yet by asking the customer to confirm that they will be present to receive the fax we then issue it on the basis that they confirm they will be.

I think that this time, given the way that the senior management seem to be poushing this trial and allowing staff greater freedoms and a bigger say in how we move forward, there will be a change which will allow us to send emails to customers with attachments.

How great the scope will be will be down to the agreement that they get with stakeholders, and I suspect that there will not be the option to have email as a default method of correspondence or to record the email address on a record, but as with faxes the customer/agent would have to supply the address each time they required a piece of correspondence, i.e an SA302 tax calculation, Tax Year Overview, Statement of Earnings, employment history, Certificate of Residence etc etc.

However, once it's in place, then we can work on extending the scope of it. The hardest battle, just getting it in place at all, needs to be won first.

Pennywise

dori2o wrote: »

I suspect that there will not be the option to have email as a default method of correspondence or to record the email address on a record

Which is why agents get so frustrated with HMRC, because whilst the depts dealing direct with the public (SA etc) won't use email as standard, other HMRC departments do. I just don't get why security is such an issue for HMRC to deal with when other organisations and businesses (such as online retailing, banks and even Companies House and DVLC etc) can do virtually everything on line. Where there's a will, there's a way - HMRC seem to be making excuses in the name of security for their unwillingness to engage with electronic communication.

It's very rare for an employer to get a piece of paper from HMRC - advice of coding notices, late payment notices, etc are sent via email, to the default email address held on file by HMRC, for the employer to logon and read. Payroll software can automatically check and update for coding notice changes. The interaction between employer and HMRC is mostly automated these days via internet.

Likewise for VAT where vat return reminders are sent by email as are acknowledgements of change of details.

It's a bit paradoxical why, when HMRC change a paye code, they send a piece of paper to the individual but an electronic notice to the employer.

Surely, if the taxpayer has set up a Govt Gateway account and has submitted his SA return via it, then HMRC should respond in like manner back to the taxpayer's govt gateway account? Or is that too hard for HMRC management to grasp?

dori2o

Pennywise wrote: »

Which is why agents get so frustrated with HMRC, because whilst the depts dealing direct with the public (SA etc) won't use email as standard, other HMRC departments do. I just don't get why security is such an issue for HMRC to deal with when other organisations and businesses (such as online retailing, banks and even Companies House and DVLC etc) can do virtually everything on line. Where there's a will, there's a way - HMRC seem to be making excuses in the name of security for their unwillingness to engage with electronic communication.

It's very rare for an employer to get a piece of paper from HMRC - advice of coding notices, late payment notices, etc are sent via email, to the default email address held on file by HMRC, for the employer to logon and read. Payroll software can automatically check and update for coding notice changes. The interaction between employer and HMRC is mostly automated these days via internet.

Likewise for VAT where vat return reminders are sent by email as are acknowledgements of change of details.

It's a bit paradoxical why, when HMRC change a paye code, they send a piece of paper to the individual but an electronic notice to the employer.

Surely, if the taxpayer has set up a Govt Gateway account and has submitted his SA return via it, then HMRC should respond in like manner back to the taxpayer's govt gateway account? Or is that too hard for HMRC management to grasp?

They do respond to the Online account. Your tax return is there to be viewed for a 12 month period to allow you to make amendments. You can view any calculation for any return submitted online over the past 4 years. Your statement is updated to the online account. You can make payments and claim refunds, enter your bank details etc. So it doesdo a lot of what you have said above. But that isn't the issue you brought up. the issue was that you wanted correspondence by email.

The thing is the stuff that is currently send electronically outside of the SA online service, such as the information that you describe above, is low value and low security.

There isn't much any fraudster can get from a P6, and whilst the RTI system is done online it's not email, it's via a secure portal which has to be logged onto. You confirm that yourself in you post above.

Sending a person a letter confirming lots of their personal details, sending pay and tax information, employment histories etc provides a fraudster with significantly more information than is currently issued by email.

Even banks currently do not send statements by email, but you can log on to you online banking account and see your balance/transactions etc.

The new online tax accounts that the chancellor announced in last years budgets will provide you with the majority of information that is held on your record and will allow you to make certain low value changes without the need to contact HMRC, such as adding company cars, removing BIK, adding/removing pension relief/gift aid, making payments including payments for PAYE underpayments online.

The information we have been given suggests that it will also have the capability to send text alerts whenever something is issued/becomes due/is received.

The Self Assessment online system allows you access to the financial information submitted on your tax return, You can see and print statements and tax calculations, but only after you have logged intoa secure account, it is not issued by email.

So whilst HMRC might be a little bit behind they are not massively behind in terms of comparison to what other businesses do and do not issue by email.

This has been the sticking point, that email is not, and never will be secure unless it is done via a secure web portal. We are currently pushing for basic email contact to be sent from HMRC to the customer, but I assume we may have to make it clear to the customer that security of their emails is their responsibility, and only send it if they agree.

I personally, at this point in time whilst email is still so unsecure, would not think of writing to my bank by email asking them to resolve a query, especially considering I would have to include my name, address, account number, sort code, password etc in order for them to be able to deal with the query. That would be a fraudsters dream, and to be honest I couldn't do that any way because my bank doesn't deal with personal account queries by email, they will only respond to generic questions.

I do think that there is this view that as we all use email within our day to day lives that it should be the norm for absolutely everything. People think it should be the default medium for corresponding, but in the majority of cases, the biggest comnpanies don't use it as a recommended method of customer contact where private/confidential information has to be sent back and forth.

I'd be very interested to hear of any nbank etc that actually sends statement, personal account data via email to an ordinary email account and doesn't send them vua a secure portal/website.

Edit... Also I'd just like to add that whilst HMRC management are to blame for a lot of the problems, which is why they have agreed to work with the PCS union rather than against it in improving the service, some of the issues are out of their hands. The Email issue for example, the last time this was discussed it was HMRC Stakeholders who blocked the idea. Similarly a recent idea that was proposed under a seperate scheme to improve customer service to allow contact centre staff to accept reasonable excuses for cancelling penalties for self assessment was stopped in its tracks by the stakeholders.

So it's not always a case of HMRC management being out of touch. Sometimes it goes higher.

As I said earlier I will take your comment regarding standardised email contact forward and see if we can do some work on this before submitting it as an idea, i.e. getting the date on what are the top contact reasons, looking at what questions would need to be asked/answered, security aspects etc etc

dori2o

Can I just add that I know people seem to see the issue of security as a cop out most of the time, but you and I know what would happen if someones information was taken and used to defraud someone/set up a fake identity, take out credit cards/loans etc in someone elses name, there would be a national outrage and no matter what the facts HMRC would be at fault.

That is what the management and to an extent, the stakeholders, are concerned about.

Imagine if it happened to you, that you had requested this information from HMRC be emailed to you, and somehow not only did you receive the information but also someone else managed to aquire it (despite HMRC only having sent it to you and nobody else) and used it to set up a fake credit card account racking up hundreds if not thousands of pounds in debts that yoou were then chased for.

Who would you put at the top of the tree when it came to blame?

(The question is rhetorical, no need to provide me with answers)

Pennywise

I don't think anyone is suggesting random emails to/from HMRC from anonymous/unproven email accounts. I was certainly talking along the lines of structured emails and "emails" or equivalent electronic messages sent via the Govt Gateway account. I.e. log into your GG account and send a free-form email, which HMRC would reply back to your "inbox" in your GG account, perhaps with an email notification that there was a new message. Just like the banks. You're quite right there, no-one thinks normal email is acceptable for giving your bank instructions or receiving statements, but it is now standard practice to use an equivalent "in box" within a secure website/portal to send/receive messages and to use the same portal to make instructions, such as pay a bill or make a transfer. No reason at all why the GG portal can't be expanded to deal with a lot more.

Until HMRC embrace e-communication, they'll always be fighting against the tide of people phoning in. These people often don't even need to phone in if there were other channels of communication. It's like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic if HMRC are concentrating on handling and dealing with incoming calls, rather than actually doing a more worthwhile task of reducing the reasons why people have to call in the first place.

Yes, some people don't have a GG account and may want to phone or write to HMRC for other reasons (such as some elderly, some disabled, etc), but a lot of people DO have GG account and that needs to be more fully exploited as THE prime medium of communication for those people who are willing and able to use it.