{"id":1598,"date":"2016-11-17T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T10:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2016-11-17T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T10:56:37","slug":"freedom-of-information-request-reveals-rise-in-hmrc-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/freedom-of-information-request-reveals-rise-in-hmrc-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Information request reveals rise in HMRC complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Freedom of Information request has revealed that HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) received a record number of complaints in the 2015\/16 financial year \u2013 almost topping figures recorded during the financial crisis.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The news follows ongoing criticisms that HMRC\u2019s customer service standards are diminishing as the Revenue storms ahead with Making Tax Digital (MTD).<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, concerns have also been raised about the Revenue\u2019s telephone call-waiting times.<\/p>\n<p>But a new request under the Freedom of Information Act has now revealed that HMRC complaints have reached their highest level since the financial crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Complaints were up by more than 7,000 year-on-year in 2015\/16, with HMRC handling a grand total of 81,066 complaints, comparable with 73,646 recorded in 2014\/15.<\/p>\n<p>During the financial crisis of 2008\/9, the Revenue received 83,917 complaints \u2013 just 2,851 shy of 2015\/16\u2019s worrying figures.<\/p>\n<p>Data also revealed that more than half of all complaints in 2015\/16 were upheld, up from just 37 per cent two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, a report published by the Public Accounts Committee suggested that if any further spending cuts hit HMRC, taxpayers would be sure to suffer a further blow to service standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Freedom of Information request has revealed that HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) received a record number of complaints in the 2015\/16 financial year \u2013 almost topping figures recorded during the financial crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}