PAC puts HMRC Customer Service and Accounts under the microscope
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) holds an evidence session with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) at 10am on Thursday 28 November. The session proceeds from two National Audit Office (NAO) reports in 2024, HMRC customer service and its 2023-24 accounts.
Meeting details
In March 2024, the overdue tax owed to HMRC stood at £43bn, according to the NAO. This was approximately £1bn less than reported in 2023, but still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels of around £15bn. The report highlighted the risk that some of the balance will never be recovered as debts become older, with HMRC estimates of what it might not be able to collect increasing to £27.6bn in 2023-24, from £19.2bn in 2022-23.
Customer service levels will also be on the agenda for the Committee, with the NAO finding that delivering responsive customer service continued to be one of HMRC’s biggest challenges in 2024. Its telephone answering performance continued to decline this year, with customers cumulatively spending 798 years on hold waiting to speak with the tax authority in 2022-23 – more than double the time spent waiting in 2019-20.
Error and fraud in HMRC’s accounts are likely to be discussed, with material levels present in Corporation Tax research and development reliefs, personal tax credits and child benefit. Child benefit saw error and fraud levels jump to 1.6% of expenditure in 2023-24, from 0.8% in 2022-23. HMRC has said this was due to a change in its own methodology, though more data is needed to confirm this.
Based on the NAO reports, MPs will hear from top officials at HMRC on subjects including:
- Reducing the tax gap;
- Tackling error and fraud;
- Improving customer experience.