HMRC now taking FIVE MINUTES to answer phones after overestimating numbers that would go online

HMRC was accused of putting older people at ‘risk of exclusion’ after it emerged it is taking far longer to answer phone calls because it overestimated how many would use the internet.

Last year it took the taxman an average of 4 minutes 28 seconds to answer the phone – more than 30 seconds slower than the year before.

Almost 15 per cent of callers waited more than ten minutes to be answered. And it also took longer for the public to receive a response to letters.

HMRC’s annual report admits the failings are down to the fact that it expected more people to be using their digital services.

This meant they had not employed enough staff to answer the phone. But critics claim HMRC’s attitude betrays a lack of interest in the needs of older people who are less likely to want to deal with the taxman over the internet.

Caroline Abrahams of Age UK suggests that Government bodies should be forced by law to ensure they have decent services for those who do not wish to use websites.

‘We know that in many walks of life online methods are becoming the norm,’ she said.

‘This may be fine for people who are confident computer users but we should not discriminate against those who are not, including nearly four million older people in our society who do not use computers at all.

‘The shift to our routine transactions and interactions with public bodies taking place online is so pronounced that the question arises as to whether we need new legal duties to ensure they continue to offer alternative methods of access, whether that’s by telephone, letter or face to face.

HMRC was accused of putting older people at ‘risk of exclusion’ after online drive backfired

‘We think this debate is now needed if we’re to protect the interests of the substantial numbers of older people – about one in three of the entire older population – who do not use computers and who are at huge risk of exclusion as a result.’

HMRC’s annual report for 2017/18 confirmed: ‘We received 46.7million phone calls to our contact centres in 2017/18.

‘This is a decrease of 10 per cent in demand to speak to an adviser, as more customers use our digital services – but so far customer demand hasn’t dropped by as much as we expected it to after we introduced digital channels.’

Last night an HMRC spokesman said: ‘Our phone lines are open seven days a week and millions of customers now use our online services, webchat, Twitter and the HMRC app.’