Recommendation 21

Despite this, and despite managing an additional 2.4 million customers with debt, HMRC told us it has not seen an increase in the number of customers it identifies as being vulnerable, demonstrated by the steady rate of customers its staff have referred to its Extra Support Team.52 HMRC told us around 1,400 customers currently access help from its Extra Support Team. This is a tiny fraction of the 6.2 million customers with tax debt.53 It also compares poorly with numbers before the pandemic, when debt management specialists in HMRC’s Extra Support Team saw their caseload more than double, from 1,149 cases in 2017–18 to 2,867 cases in 2019–20.54