Taxman fails to answer44 million calls a year

HM Revenue and Customs may be red hot at chasing up tax arrears but when it comes to picking up the telephone they are distinct slouches.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Jan 2010, 15:21 BST

Updated 14th Jan 2010, 22:59 BST

Around 44 million calls a year to the taxman have been going unanswered, the Whitehall spending watchdog disclosed today.

The National Audit Office (NAO) described the performance of HMRC’s 31 customer “contact centres” during the course of 2008-09 as “unacceptable”.

Despite employing the equivalent of 10,500 full-time staff at the centres at a cost of 233m, HMRC still failed to pick up 43 per cent of the 103 million calls it received during the year.

During the busiest periods just one in three calls (33 per cent) was answered. Callers who did get through had to wait an average two minutes for a reply – almost four minutes at peak times.

HM Revenue and Customs National Audit Office