What improvements would you like to see from HMRC

dori2o

DebbieR wrote: »

Dori2o

On the point of seeing the screen the caller sees when he's trying to complete an online return, do call centres have the option to use OTRSA(I think it's online tax return simulation application or something like that). You can see a simulation of the screen(not the actual caller's screen) and input the caller's figures onto it so you can see where the errors are. We were able to use it when we were a flex site last year.

Short answer....
NO.

Pennywise

dori2o wrote: »

Cost.

The problem is the HMRC, in fact virtually no Gov department, has their own IT done in house, it is tendered out to the most economic option and they provide the systems.

In the majority of cases the developers are given 2 things, 1, the current legislation (an overview of) regarding the system being developed, 2, a brief of what they want ther system to do. The developer builds the system and as part of the contract either they themselves provide the updates for future versions/revisions that are needed following legislation changes, or the provide the necessary code to whoever the Departments official IT service provider is.

Presumably, the developers have worked to the spec given to them, so it's the spec as created by HMRC/Treasury that is to blame. You can't blame a third party developer for doing what they've been told to do. Not sure how an in-house IT dept could be better - they'd too presumably just do as they are told. Or are you saying that the third party developers didn't produce the system they were asked to - if that's the case, then they need to be persued for compensation or to do it as per spec.

dori2o

Pennywise wrote: »

Presumably, the developers have worked to the spec given to them, so it's the spec as created by HMRC/Treasury that is to blame. You can't blame a third party developer for doing what they've been told to do. Not sure how an in-house IT dept could be better - they'd too presumably just do as they are told. Or are you saying that the third party developers didn't produce the system they were asked to - if that's the case, then they need to be persued for compensation or to do it as per spec.

I'm not blaming the developers at all, as you say they can only build the system to the spec/guidance they are given.

An in house IT service would at least have the ability to get information from the people who use the systems, and the IT team may include people who have worked with the system as most used to get the jobs from being internal recruits when they did have their own IT.

The problemj is that when these IT systems are developed they generally have some form of user testing which flags up several issues. In some cases the developer can rectify these issues if they are only minor. If however they are a big change that would require significant code re-write, which then costs money to do, then rather than spending the money the answer has always been to just find a work around, which to me is just daft as you're accepting mediocre as the standard before you even start using the system, and in most cases these work arounds then become standard practice.

Rather than just giving the developer a brief, often written by a member of the Senior Civil Service who has never worked the systems and so has no idea what should/shouldn't be included in the system, the answer for me would be to have a few people from within the organisation who do the day to day work that the system is required to be able to do and get their input and build the system based on that and the guidance/brief etc.

It always seems to work back to front and is always done based on the cheapest option which in the long run often costs more depending on what further updates are needed later on.

dori2o

DebbieR wrote: »

Dori2o

On the point of seeing the screen the caller sees when he's trying to complete an online return, do call centres have the option to use OTRSA(I think it's online tax return simulation application or something like that). You can see a simulation of the screen(not the actual caller's screen) and input the caller's figures onto it so you can see where the errors are. We were able to use it when we were a flex site last year.

dori2o wrote: »

Short answer....
NO.

I spent some time looking at OTRSA yesterday and you're right, it does exactly what we need. I'm suprised that the Flex teams have had access to this for some time and yet those in the contact centre who are both PAYE and SA trained have not been given any information on it, especially considering that people on the Flex teams generally don't deal with SA calls, they get passed through to the contact centre.

I'm looking to lead a change on this matter.

DebbieR

Dorio

We got told we could use it but to be honest, during the amount of times we were on the phones I only used it once. As a flex site we did actually answer SA calls as that's where our experience is(in our office anyway), anything to do with PAYE was passed to a core advisor. Most of the calls I handled were things like how do I pay/how do I sign up for online filing etc. I wonder why contact centres don't use it?

Talking of phone calls to HMRC, do you think it would be a good idea if there was a pinned thread on this forum nearer to the online filing date where someone could post a list of the most common reasons for phoning and a guide to where to find the answers. I know you can find out a lot on the HMRC site but it can be tricky finding the information if you don't know where to start.

mspritch

I'd like to see HMRC staff paid on a commission basis for catching tax evaders, say 1% of tax collected for the first year. Yes it would incentivise staff to go after tax dodgers, but what is a staff member going to do? Go after a few hundred small business every year, or go after one big corporation then retire?