At around one hour and six minutes into my call with HMRC, I reached breaking point. I had grown tired of listening to repetitive music on my phone and was ready to give up.
But after spending so long trying to resolve my problem, surely I wouldn’t have to wait too much longer to get an answer to my simple question?
It was amazing how ignorant I was. For it took me a total of one hour and 44 minutes to realise that I shouldn’t even have bothered making the call.
In 2020/21, the taxman got more than 33,000,000 calls – 8 million less than in previous years. However, callers waited twice as long.
HMRC’s annual report published this month reveals I am not alone in my frustration. In all, the taxman received more than 33 million calls in the 2020/21 financial year — eight million fewer than the year before.
Yet the average caller spent 12 minutes four seconds waiting to speak to the taxman — nearly twice as a long as the previous 12 months.
Only 15% of calls were made in less than 10 minutes four years ago.
Demand: Money Mail writer Ben was told he owed over £900 from a previous tax year
Nearly half of all callers waited more than 10 minutes last year. A third of the letters received were unanswered within 15 days.
It would have made my day to get my call returned in less than 12 minutes.
Days before the ill-fated call, I’d received an alarming letter that informed me (albeit in a roundabout way) that I owed more than £900 ‘from a previous tax year’. As a result, my tax code would be adjusted — forcing me to repay the debt by hiking the tax on my monthly income until April.
Now, I complete self-assessments every year to repay child benefit, so I had good reason to suspect this couldn’t be right.
I’ve also already completed my 20/21 return, which showed I was actually owed £40.
But I tried diligently to locate an answer online using my personal tax account.
But the taxman’s website was equally as baffling as the letter I’d received. I reluctantly dialed the phone number listed in my letter and called it Monday morning.
I waited for 25 minutes. During this period, I was made to listen to regular reminders that I would be waiting longer ‘due to coronavirus’.
I was also told that I might be able to find answers online — as though I hadn’t already thought of that!
HMRC’s report shows it is clearly proud of its drive towards digital customer service. Online chat has helped millions of customers with their queries. Last August, 88.5 percent of digital customers were satisfied.
However, it is not possible to find all answers on the internet. When I finally got through to a real-life human on the telephone, I explained my query and was quickly told she was ‘not trained’ to deal with matters involving self-assessment or child benefit.
She said I’d be waiting a while to speak to someone in self-assessment, so recommended I tried the child benefit team first.
Human touch: HMRC’s report shows it is clearly proud of its drive towards digital customer service. But sometimes you just need a person to help you (picture posed by model)
The lady from the child welfare team looked at me puzzled after I waited a while more.
While polite enough, all she could tell me was how the high income child benefit charge worked — something I’m more than familiar with.
So, I was back on hold again — this time waiting to speak to the in-demand self-assessment department. It was the longest waiting time of all. However, I kept trying to hope for a call back at some point.
Unhelpfully, I was not given any information about how long it would take or the number of others in my queue. It’s the exact same music, on repeat.
HMRC’s latest report shows callers hoping to speak to self-assessment are waiting an average of 17 minutes — up from eight minutes the year before.
Money Mail was also told that self-assessment taxpayers are being held up for several months due to backlogs.
After another 45-minutes, it took me to finally talk to someone.
However, the man on the other end only confirmed what I had already known. I repeated that I wanted to know how I’d come to owe this money.
Depressingly, and perhaps predictably, he said he would need to transfer me to someone who could explain it ‘a little bit better’.
The call went on for around 5 minutes more, and I finally got through to the person who could give me an answer.
Except, of course, he couldn’t help me. His apology was sincere and he provided me with the number of the self assessment team, which had just given me to him.
There are delays: As HMRC struggles to clear a backlog, taxpayers who register for self-assessment face a waiting period of at least a month in order to start working on their tax returns.
When I inquired if it would mean waiting 45 more minutes, he said yes. It would, he replied. At this point I had other things better to do.
I still didn’t know what to do after nearly forty-five minutes of wasted taxpayer time. I will be sending the letter at minimal cost. How much was the effort to interpret it in hours of man-hours?
HMRC claims it made significant improvements during the last financial year.
Angela MacDonald, deputy chief executive of HMRC, says: ‘We have seen improvements in our customer service in the first quarter of 2021-22 and we have reduced the average time taken to answer calls by more than four minutes.
‘Working from home is not a factor — HMRC colleagues have been working effectively for the past 18 months wherever they are, including the design, implementation and administration of the Covid financial support schemes, which have been our priority.
‘But I do understand the frustration and I am sorry we can’t get to everyone more quickly. I appeal for your patience and thank you for bearing with us.’
HMRC called me yesterday, after I talked to their press office to clarify what was wrong.
The good news was I did not owe more than £900. HMRC’s records simply hadn’t caught up with the repayments I had already made.
I still owe £200 or so, but this is much more manageable and won’t ruin my Christmas.
b.wilkinson@dailymail.co.uk