HMRC needs to change its approach to customer complaints and view them as an opportunity to improve service, rather than as a challenge to operation efficiency, according to the latest annual report from the Adjudicator’s Office, which reveals the department paid out some £1.3m in redress last year
The report shows taxpayers are making fewer complaints about HMRC, and a lower number of those are being upheld. During 2016-17 the Adjudicator received 1,111 new complaints, lower than the 1,226 received in 2015-16. The office resolved 1,485 upholding 41% either partially or substantially. Investigators mediated over 13% of cases directly between customers and the department, a 2% increase on last year.
Approximately 65% of the HMRC customer complaints were from benefits and credits taxpayers about tax credits, down from 75% in 2015-16. The report states: ‘This is a really positive indicator of quality improvement, even though the number of complaints coming to the Adjudicator’s Office remains high.’
The office says that during the year, the decision was taken to focus on the core matters taxpayers were complaining about, which meant a change in the categorisation policy mid-year, ie, removing minor administrative errors from the ‘partially upheld’ categorisation. This resulted in up to a 10% reduction in upheld rates.
The report states: ‘However, this does not mask very real improvements in performance, particularly in the complaints from benefits and credits customers, where upheld rates reduced from 81% in 2015-16 to 46% in 2016-17.’
Overall, the percentage of HMRC cases upheld by the Adjudicator has reduced for three successive years, 73% in 2015-16 compared to 85% in 2014-15, with significant improvement at the end of the year (59% March 2016). This downward trend has continued as the upheld rate for the year was 41%.
The report says the Adjudicator is beginning to identify and report to HMRC on underlying themes that currently either drive complaints or are a barrier to handling complaints effectively.
It states: ‘One significant theme that we identified relates to HMRC’s view of complaints themselves. The contemporary approach to complaints frames them in terms of customer insight and opportunity.
‘Although this philosophy towards complaints is driving service improvement in some business areas, it is not universally understood and accepted throughout HMRC.’
In her forward to the report Helen Megarry, who was appointed as Adjudicator last year, writes: ‘From my perspective one of the key themes impacting on HMRC’s complaint handling relates to their culture.
‘Elements of HMRC’s culture and relationships with customers, style of communication and patterns of behaviours are often contributory factors to the customer’s initial complaint and are sometimes incompatible with effective complaint handling as well.
‘HMRC also have some way to go in developing an organisational culture that is conducive to the level of listening that is required to learn from complaints.’
The Adjudicator has the facility recommend HMRC pay a monetary sum to taxpayers where appropriate, in recognition of the poor level of service they received, and any relevant cost. Last year this amounted to £1.35m, largely relating to liability given up.
The Adjudicator’s Office annual report 2017 is here.
