Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Digital systems can significantly reduce HMRC’s customer service costs by deflecting avoidable calls.
Conclusion
We asked HMRC about the potential for digital systems to reduce costs. It told us that in 2023–24 about 69% of all its interactions with customers were digital and included taxpayers filing their Self Assessment returns online and using the HMRC app to check there Pay As You Earn code.51 HMRC also told us that about two thirds of the calls it receives are avoidable, as the customer could have carried out the transaction, or found out the information, by using digital services. HMRC said if it could divert or deflect that contact away to digital channels it could reduce its costs.52 Making Tax Digital
Government Response Summary
The government states the observation is implemented, committing to publishing a Transformation Roadmap this summer. It plans to further increase digital channel use, reduce paper post, and procure an enterprise Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) platform by the end of 2025-26 to streamline customer interactions and reduce costs.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.3 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.4 HMRC has written to the Committee alongside this Treasury Minute response. 4.5 HMRC is changing how it interacts with customers, delivering a more streamlined, efficient tax system by increasing the use of digital channels allowing customers to self-serve, making it quicker and easier to meet their obligations and reducing the instances where customers need to call or write to HMRC. 4.6 HMRC is building in mobile messaging updates to customers at varying points in their HMRC journeys to provide them with reassurance, manage their expectations and reduce progress chasing calls. 4.7 HMRC will publish a Transformation Roadmap this summer, bringing together HMRC’s strategic and transformation ambitions into a single, public document. 4.8 The government is focused on modernising HMRC to become a digital-first organisation, having committed to reduce the volume of paper post sent whilst maintaining this provision for critical correspondence and the digitally excluded. 4.9 By the end of 2025-26, HMRC will procure an enterprise Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) platform, providing advisers with a complete picture of customers’ tax affairs, transforming how HMRC interacts with customers. The platform will support the government's aim for HMRC to modernise its systems, improve customer service, and close the tax gap.