HMRCSR0019

The submitter of this evidence has requested that the committee consider treating this evidence as anonymous

The Public Accounts Committee may be interested in my experience with HMRC over the period 2022-23.

I became eligible for my State pension in April 2022. Before applying to draw this, I wanted to check whether I had any gaps in my National Insurance record that could be made up by making voluntary extra National Insurance payments. It proved impossible to get through on the telephone to either HMRC or the Future Pensions department of the DWP. I spent literally hours over many months ringing the helplines and never received an answer. On several occasions I was simply cut off when I thought my call had finally been answered.

The alternative – to request the information I required – through the Government Gateway repeatedly threw up the misleading message “The information you gave does not match our records”. This was a nonsense because I was inputting correct data. Eventually, in desperation, I contacted the Well-Being section of the FCO (my previous employer) only to be told that I was barred from the Government Gateway because of additional security measures on my tax records because of my past service as a civil servant with the Department.  I was therefore and remain unable to take advantage of the many online tools and websites that are available to other members of the public.

Only after I contacted my MP in March of 2023 to try to sort out this intractable problem did I eventually receive details of the additional voluntary extra National Insurance payments I needed to make to maximise my pension entitlement. I duly paid the sum specified immediately to the nominated HMRC account, using a code provided to me. My bank confirmed that the money was correctly sent to the HMRC account.

After that, complete silence. No receipt or acknowledgment of the thousands of £s paid to HMRC. Telephone calls to both HMRC and the DWP confirmed that my records had not been updated to reflect my payment. DWP officials advised me not to start drawing my pension until my records had been updated “because the system will never sort this out”. During one telephone call on 1 September a DWP official said that “he was unable to update my records because he did not have the necessary security clearance to do so”. This, he said, was the responsibility of HMRC. He also said that “he would have been able to update my records in 30 seconds were it not for the HMRC imposed security considerations”.

It cannot be right that my past employment with the FCO has meant that I have been severely disadvantaged by HMRC. There will be other individuals in the same cohort - mostly women - who took career breaks to raise a family or for other reasons and do not have full National Insurance records. Being prevented from using the Government Gateway portal with a highly misleading message (it should at the very least have stated “you cannot access this portal, refer to your past employer for advice”) caused stress and anxiety and added to the confusion around this issue. I have been unable to take advantage of HMRC’s much trumpeted “online help” to resolve my difficulties. I appreciate the need for additional security around my tax records, but that should not lead to my being penalised and given no assistance or support.

I would hope that Committee members take account of my experience with HMRC. What must I suggest result from the Committee’s investigation is:

-   overcoming the lamentable delays and inaction at HMRC

-   ensuring that those who for security reasons are barred from using the Government Gateway have proper and speedy access to HMRC’s services and programmes. I have read of plans for a new HMRC online helpline to be introduced by the spring of 2024, but how will that help those of us in my position who are unable to use the Government Gateway? What alternative arrangements will be made?

- requiring that all payments made to HMRC are swiftly acknowledged and receipts issued

- ensuring that communication between HMRC and the DWP is improved and barriers to the updating of individuals’ records removed.

It is nothing short of scandalous that it has taken me 18 months to resolve this matter: it is only through my own persistence and enlisting the support of others (notably my MP) that I have finally been able to escape from this ‘doom loop’ of inaction and prevarication by one of the principal Offices of State.

October 2023