HMRC fails to answer hundreds of thousands of tax credit calls

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/07/hmrc-fails-to-answer-thousands-of-tax-credit-calls

GR Comment: “To the contrary: I used to be working scum, meaning that my taxes were detained from my wages. Amazingly, HMRC proved to be extremely efficient in hunting me down after leaving the UK to live and work elsewhere. Although I owed them nothing at all, they inundated me with a barrage of letters, threatening me with hefty fines for not filling in a tax return. The letters became increasingly more nasty and arrived fortnightly, finally imposing fines that quickly exceeded the £1000.00 mark.

However, here comes the funny bit. As I reached the end of my tether, I scrambled myself together and wrote an explaining letter to our right honourable PM Dave the great. Within six weeks I received another letter of HMRC, telling me that I would owe them nothing and no tax return would be due. Another three weeks later I received another letter, this time with a cheque enclosed for the sum of £1200. This was money they actually owed me instead. My point? Well, I wonder how much money these sharks could retrieve if only they would hunt down wealthy, tax dodging, scum?”

GR Comment: “Tories are very opposed to Tax and have little enthusiasm for collecting it apparently. How Osborne proposes to finance the building of a Nuclear Power station at Hinkley Point and his particular vanity project;HS2, is a mystery therefore.”

GR Comment: “HMRC answered more calls, not less as the headline would suggest.
I worked on tax credits for 13 years in a contact centre. The problem is that they paid off far too many experienced staff and rely on temp staff who due to the complexity of the policy and how it interacts with other tax or benefit policies, are trained on the ‘basic’ calls thus leaving calls of a slightly and very in depth nature (like overpayments) to the smaller base of experienced staff. This increases waiting time.

Add to all of this some of the most complicated call type processes known to man (which the adviser must follow to the letter or risk being marked down for ‘quality’ of call), in most cases over 15 steps, with legal statements that must be read out, it all adds to the call length.
However if you look at personal tax, this is bogged down with all these long processes! If the department LISTENED to the staff who actually work on the front line and EMPLOYED the required number then it would massively improve even more than it is.

However the rhetoric in HMRC and the press is a negative one. The same language etc is being used when the NHS is reported on, so they can slowly justify privatisation.

Just as an end note (thank god), the DWP has 10 times more people investigating benefit fraud, which brings in minimal income, whereas HMRCs highly skilled and trained tax professionals who do bring in millions of unpaid tax each from big business and individuals, are now in the 100s. If increased they could bring in the BILLIONS that are uncollected. The government say they want everyone to pay their tax or they will be dealt with accordingly. However the focus is, as usual, is on the people at the bottom.”