Accountancy Daily are reporting that 35% of calls to HMRC call centres were not answered in February compared with 27.8% in January.
At the same time, 69% of callers waited more than 10 minutes for the call to be picked up, the worst performance since April 2022, while the average pick-up time was 21 minutes and 40 seconds.
During February, HMRC received 3,229,945 despite the tax authority’s attempts to push people to use online services and webchat to resolve queries.
Despite pressure from all the main accounting bodies, who have written to the government requesting more funding for HMRC to tackle the volume of enquiries and backlogue of correspondence, there has been relatively little in terms of government proposals to alleviate the pressure on HMRC, tax advisors and tax payers.
MPs on the Treasury Committee have also called for significant improvements as a matter of urgency.
So while we continue to correspond on behalf of clients with HMRC, we are often having to practice patience in receiving the required response. Yet however frustrating delays may be, it is still essential that HMRC are contacted in the event of a query or issue.