HMRC phone lines have been criticised as not up to the job

It will come as little surprise to anyone who has had to call HMRC in the last six months, but a report by the Public Accounts Committee has stated that HMRC was running a “deliberately poor” phone service in an attempt to push taxpayers to seek help online instead, a claim HMRC has denied.

Figures quoted in the report showed how bad the service has become, with 43,690 customers who had been waiting 70 minutes or more to reach an adviser being cut off without warning in the first 11 months of the 2023-24 financial year. They were not told they were about to be cut off, nor were they called back.

In an attempt to speed up security checks and process phone calls faster, HMRC are introducing voice recognition out across the network to act a digital type signature. The caller’s voice will be recorded saying a variety of phrases as this will act as a password when calling in future rather than the usual date of birth/NI number type questions.

Whether this will mean you are on hold for less time remains to be seen.