{"id":16856,"date":"2012-08-10T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=16856"},"modified":"2012-08-10T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T09:00:52","slug":"1000-new-staff-are-welcome-at-hmrc-now-can-we-have-the-other-19000-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/08\/10\/1000-new-staff-are-welcome-at-hmrc-now-can-we-have-the-other-19000-please\/","title":{"rendered":"1,000 new staff are welcome at HMRC – now can we have the other 19,000 please?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Press Association has reported:<\/a><\/p>\n

Revenue and Customs is to recruit up to 1,000 extra staff to tackle delays in getting through to call centres.\u00a0The move is aimed at achieving a target of answering 90% of calls, two years earlier than planned.<\/p>\n

Around \u00a39 million of extra investment will be made this year, and up to \u00a325 million in 2013-14 to reach the call centre industry standard by next spring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As they also note:<\/p>\n

Performance has improved from 48% of calls handled in 2010\/11 to 74% in 2011\/12, but HMRC said more needed to be done to provide a better service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those statistics are astonishing. So badly has HMRC been denuded of staff, and so low was morale under Dave Hartnett, that less than half of phone calls were answered. The fact that this staff increase has been announced days after he left is, I am sure, no coincidence.<\/p>\n

But there's much more to the statistics than that. This is the most basic job HMRC does, taking calls and with\u00a0dealing\u00a0routine enquiries. If staff to do that have been reduced to this level of inefficiency by management choice and action what must have happened to more complex operations, like the\u00a0tackling tax gap?<\/p>\n

HMRC like to say that this is just \u00a335 billion\u00a0and only an issue of limited concern. They're wrong on the scale of the issue, as I explain here<\/a>. And their attempts to close it are\u00a0half hearted - not helped by Osborne's desire to promote\u00a0corporate tax haven abuse.<\/p>\n

I've long said we need 20,000 new HMRC staff, located in local tax offices, dealing with taxpayers (not customers) face to face. Then we'd \u00a0really close down the tax gap. And at \u00a325,000 a head (HMRC's estimate, mine is twice that, bringing my total cost to \u00a31 billion) I think \u00a320 billion a \u00a0year could be recovered.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0whilst HMRC deny the scale of the problem - to suit an agenda of small\u00a0government that reflects the\u00a0corporate capture of the\u00a0management\u00a0of the\u00a0department - that's not going to happen and we're going to get cuts in public services instead.<\/p>\n

That's a choice, and it's the wrong choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Press Association has reported: Revenue and Customs is to recruit up to 1,000 extra staff to tackle delays in getting through to call centres.\u00a0The
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