The enquiry centres, open to the public to deal directly with HMRC representatives in an effort to resolve tax queries, will be phased out and replaced with a combination of mobile home visits and telephone support centres. A five-month pilot of the new telephone-based service will begin in June, in the north-east of England, and, if successful, will lead to the remaining centres closing from February 2014.
HMRC have reported falling numbers in visitors to enquiry centres since 2005/2006, with 5 million people using the service during that period, compared to just 2.5 million in 2011/2012. The average cost of dealing with individual visits at these centres also rose from £106 in 2009/2010, to £152 in 2011/2012, with the Hexham enquiry centre dealing with just 601 appointments last year, at an average cost of £185. Overall, the move is expected to save £13 million in administrative expenses.
Treasury minister David Gauke explained that HMRC plans to introduce a ‘more accessible’ service tailored to customer needs.
“These plans include a specialist team of telephone advisers and a team of mobile, face-to-face advisers able to meet with customers wherever they live.” he said.
Concerns were raised this week however by a select committee, describing HMRC’s target of answering 80% of calls within five minutes as ‘woefully inadequate and unambitious’.
Margaret Hodge, Labour MP who chairs the committee said,
“The department should set a more demanding target in the short term and a long-term target that is much closer to the industry standard of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds."
Commenting on the announcement, Senior Accountant at MCC, Robert Flint said,
“Whilst we fully recognise the importance to move with trends and save valuable taxpayers' money, we are concerned at the impact these measures will have on those most in need of help, such as the elderly or vulnerable who may not wish to conduct a home visit or discuss financial matters over the telephone. In our opinion, the role of the supportive accountant grows bigger every year.”
