PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament
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457WH<br />
HMRC Closures<br />
26 MARCH 2013<br />
HMRC Closures<br />
458WH<br />
There are always particular challenges within the tax<br />
system that might cause an increase in demand and<br />
phone calls. Steps are taken to reduce some of that<br />
demand from time to time.<br />
In that context, it is worth turning to the research,<br />
which the hon. Lady touched on, that helped guide<br />
HMRC in its decision. It was undertaken by an independent<br />
agency, adhering to strict industry guidelines, and its<br />
findings confirm that face-to-face support works best<br />
for some HMRC customers who need extra help. It also<br />
says that any service for customers who need extra help<br />
must be as flexible and as accessible as possible, which is<br />
why HMRC is introducing specialist, expert over-the-phone<br />
help and working closely with the voluntary and community<br />
sector. A face-to-face service is an important part of the<br />
proposal, but it is worth underlining that the inquiries<br />
of the 2.5 million or so who visit HMRC centres are<br />
satisfied over the telephone. They use the inquiry centres<br />
to phone contact centres, which leads us to the important<br />
issue of ensuring that contact centres provide an adequate<br />
service.<br />
I shall take this opportunity to respond to the hon.<br />
Lady’s questions. The number of call attempts handled<br />
for February this year was 91.8%, which is considerably<br />
higher than it has been at any time since HMRC’s<br />
formation. I remember that the number was 45% for<br />
2010-11, and I think it was about 75% for the previous<br />
years, as it has been subsequently. HMRC’s ability to<br />
handle calls has therefore increased, which is welcome<br />
progress, and that, to be honest, is what we should<br />
expect from HMRC—progress on the standards.<br />
To elaborate on the point I made a moment or so ago,<br />
HMRC’s analysis of inquiry centre use shows that 84%<br />
of the centres’ customers did not need a face-to-face<br />
meeting and were able to get the help they needed over<br />
the phone or online. The 400,000 customers who did<br />
need face-to-face advice had to travel to their nearest<br />
inquiry centre to make an appointment, and if there<br />
was no appointment free at that time, go back on<br />
another day to take up their appointment. The service is<br />
not particularly convenient even for those who do have<br />
a centre nearby.<br />
HMRC’s research, which I referred to a moment ago,<br />
shows that up to 1.5 million customers need extra help<br />
with their tax and benefits affairs. Many just need help<br />
for a specific event in their lives—for example, when<br />
they approach retirement, deal with the death of a<br />
family member or declare new income for the first<br />
time—and others may have low literacy or numeracy<br />
skills, or difficulties coping with their affairs as a result<br />
of a mental health condition. Most of the 1.5 million<br />
people who need extra help do not currently use an<br />
inquiry centre. HMRC has researched the needs of<br />
those customers and that research has helped in the<br />
design of the new service.<br />
The new service will provide specialist expert help<br />
over the phone for those who need it, and its advisers<br />
will take the time to sort out issues if they can. Customers<br />
will be able to phone from home and arrange a call-back<br />
if they cannot afford the call themselves, or they may<br />
use a free phone at a local Jobcentre Plus. Customers<br />
needing extra help will be quickly identified and put<br />
straight through to a trained adviser who has more<br />
time, as well as the skills, knowledge and empathy<br />
needed to handle the inquiry at a pace that suits the<br />
customer.<br />
If the adviser cannot sort out issues over the phone,<br />
face-to-face support, delivered by a mobile adviser, will<br />
be arranged at a place and time convenient to the<br />
customer. It might be at a library or a local authority<br />
location close to the customer’s home, but I must reassure<br />
my hon. Friend that it will not involve the Isle of Wight<br />
ferry service. If someone needs a home visit, HMRC<br />
will arrange for a local home visitor to contact them<br />
and arrange a convenient appointment time between<br />
8 am and 8 pm every working day. That is much more<br />
convenient than being constrained to a fixed location<br />
that is potentially difficult to access and often open for<br />
only one day a week. Extra help will also be delivered<br />
through voluntary and community sector organisations,<br />
such as Citizens Advice and TaxAid, with additional<br />
funding from HMRC.<br />
The new service will be not only better but more costeffective.<br />
Customers will save an estimated £12 million a<br />
year, through such things as reduced travel costs, and from<br />
April HMRC will convert its 0845 numbers to 03 numbers,<br />
making calling HMRC cheaper for all customers.<br />
The current network of 281 inquiry centres is<br />
unsustainably expensive. The average cost of an<br />
appointment across the network has risen from £106 in<br />
2009-10 to £152, and in some inquiry centres it is up to<br />
£500. By comparison, it costs an average of £3 per<br />
phone call and just 9p per online transaction. Members<br />
will appreciate that that expense is just not sustainable<br />
in the current economic climate. The new service will<br />
save HMRC up to £13 million a year.<br />
HMRC will reinvest some of the savings from the<br />
closure of the inquiry centre network into the new faceto-face<br />
service and the voluntary and community sector<br />
support. To ensure that the phones are answered when<br />
people call, HMRC is investing £34 million in its contact<br />
centres. HMRC has also worked extremely hard to<br />
make big improvements to its customer service following<br />
the Public Accounts Committee report, which was touched<br />
upon by my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight<br />
and the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North.<br />
As a result, it currently answers more than 90% of the<br />
call attempts it receives each week.<br />
In designing the new service, HMRC has worked<br />
closely with a number of voluntary sector partners,<br />
including Citizens Advice, as well as tax charities such<br />
as TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People. On 14 March,<br />
HMRC launched a public consultation on how the new<br />
service would be implemented. The consultation focuses<br />
on the following: how a new service would be delivered<br />
in practice and whether refinements are needed for<br />
particular customer groups; the impact that closing<br />
inquiry centres would have on local communities, customers<br />
and diversity groups; the impact of the new service on<br />
the voluntary and community sector; and the support<br />
needed for customers to make the transition to other<br />
channels. The public consultation will enable staff also<br />
to feed in their views, and a summary of the responses<br />
will be published by the end of summer 2013.<br />
A pilot of the new service in what I should perhaps<br />
describe as the greater north-east of England, will involve<br />
closing 13 inquiry centres and testing the new service<br />
between 3 June and 31 October 2013. That will help in<br />
gathering more information to ensure that the service is<br />
absolutely right for the customer, and a decision on<br />
whether to roll out the service nationwide will be made