Surprise, Surprise.
A new computer system at the Inland Revenue has resulted in mistakes in tax deductions for tens for thousands of people, many of whom have been left out of pocket until the money can be refunded. Pensioners, whose tax codes are complex, are as you might expect, among those worst hit.
People have had their personal tax allowances removed and been placed on higher tax codes or even had a '1' inserted in front of their salary, putting their taxable income by £100,000.
The Revenue has also admitted its call centres are "exceptionally busy" and that callers "are finding it difficult to get through to an adviser" and some have been disconnected before they can report their problems. Nice service guys. That’s what we pay you for NOT. Note to George....Sort it!
Although the problem first came to light in January, so it can hardly be blamed on the current government, HMRC has never publicly disclosed how many people had been affected. However, it is now reckoned that there could be up to 100,000 people affected in total.
Despite the awful service from the call centre, employers are still being advised that if they have enquiries from employees or pensioners about this to ask them to contact the Revenue in the usual way,....so that they can be ignored, or rather cut off after they have struggled through countless mechanical exercises in getting to the correct destination.
HMRC said that more customers had been contacting them because they wanted to query the coding used in their April pay packets. Noooooo, surely not?
They said: "We are aware that some customers, because of the increase in demand, are finding it
difficult to get through to an adviser and we apologise for this and are doing all we can to meet the need.
"Inevitably at busy times we may be unable to answer all our calls. We are working hard to maintain a good customer service. We know, for instance, that some customers have been frustrated by being disconnected after they have been through the … messaging system, but before they speak to an adviser. We are now taking new measures to help prevent this from happening."
Actually it’s not really “inevitable” at all, and I can’t see why they think it would be. They knew about this mistake in January. They might reasonably have expected that if they didn’t fix it by April there would be a high demand for their service from confused, frustrated and sometime seriously worried “customers” or taxpayers as ordinary people would call them. So really the only inevitability is that they could expect one hell of a lot of complaints.
It begs the question ... why didn’t they prepare for this....?
The problem, needless to say, comes from the introduction of a new system, which combines information on National Insurance contributions and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) for the first time. But in some cases the system has incorrect information about earnings, m
eaning some people incorrectly being placed in the wrong tax band.
HMRC admitted the number affected was unknown because staff were not recording how many cases they had dealt with. Or maybe they just don’t want us to know how badly they have messed up...
I’ve dealt with the Revenue and frankly it gets about 6 out of 10 for politeness. but 2 out of 10 for reliability. My experience was that nothing gets done till you push and push and get cross. Then it gets done wrong and you have to start all over again.
I wish the people who have been wrongly coded the very best of luck in trying to get it sorted. They'll surely need it.
A new computer system at the Inland Revenue has resulted in mistakes in tax deductions for tens for thousands of people, many of whom have been left out of pocket until the money can be refunded. Pensioners, whose tax codes are complex, are as you might expect, among those worst hit.
People have had their personal tax allowances removed and been placed on higher tax codes or even had a '1' inserted in front of their salary, putting their taxable income by £100,000.
The Revenue has also admitted its call centres are "exceptionally busy" and that callers "are finding it difficult to get through to an adviser" and some have been disconnected before they can report their problems. Nice service guys. That’s what we pay you for NOT. Note to George....Sort it!
Although the problem first came to light in January, so it can hardly be blamed on the current government, HMRC has never publicly disclosed how many people had been affected. However, it is now reckoned that there could be up to 100,000 people affected in total.
Despite the awful service from the call centre, employers are still being advised that if they have enquiries from employees or pensioners about this to ask them to contact the Revenue in the usual way,....so that they can be ignored, or rather cut off after they have struggled through countless mechanical exercises in getting to the correct destination.
HMRC said that more customers had been contacting them because they wanted to query the coding used in their April pay packets. Noooooo, surely not?
They said: "We are aware that some customers, because of the increase in demand, are finding it
difficult to get through to an adviser and we apologise for this and are doing all we can to meet the need."Inevitably at busy times we may be unable to answer all our calls. We are working hard to maintain a good customer service. We know, for instance, that some customers have been frustrated by being disconnected after they have been through the … messaging system, but before they speak to an adviser. We are now taking new measures to help prevent this from happening."
Actually it’s not really “inevitable” at all, and I can’t see why they think it would be. They knew about this mistake in January. They might reasonably have expected that if they didn’t fix it by April there would be a high demand for their service from confused, frustrated and sometime seriously worried “customers” or taxpayers as ordinary people would call them. So really the only inevitability is that they could expect one hell of a lot of complaints.
It begs the question ... why didn’t they prepare for this....?
The problem, needless to say, comes from the introduction of a new system, which combines information on National Insurance contributions and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) for the first time. But in some cases the system has incorrect information about earnings, m
eaning some people incorrectly being placed in the wrong tax band.HMRC admitted the number affected was unknown because staff were not recording how many cases they had dealt with. Or maybe they just don’t want us to know how badly they have messed up...
I’ve dealt with the Revenue and frankly it gets about 6 out of 10 for politeness. but 2 out of 10 for reliability. My experience was that nothing gets done till you push and push and get cross. Then it gets done wrong and you have to start all over again.
I wish the people who have been wrongly coded the very best of luck in trying to get it sorted. They'll surely need it.
