'Panicked' state pensioners rush to swamp HMRC helpline with two-word query

Panicked pensioners have rushed to call HMRC with older people blamed by the Labour Party government tax department for the decline in customer service. The taxman says its helpline has been swamped by ‘retirement tax’ queries.

Sir Jim Harra was questioned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday on HMRC’s notoriously poor call handling times. Sir Jim said: “The state pension has always been a taxable source of income but obviously a combination of the frozen tax allowances and the triple lock mean that more and more state pensioners find that their total income is large enough to be subject to income tax.”

He said the rise in queries meant continued “upward pressure” on HMRC’s services. Sir Jim added: “That is one of the reasons why our customer service levels have been below where we want them to be.” Sir Jim told MPs: “We try to minimise the extent to which state pensioners have to engage with the self-assessment tax system.

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"But obviously, as they come on to the tax system for the first time, when they receive those bills from us, that can come as a surprise to them, it’s not something they’ve experienced before, and therefore it can generate contact with us to query what it is or if they’re worried about payment.

“I guess people will become more familiar with that over time but as more and more come in, that is frictional contact that we receive.” Myrtle Lloyd, director general of customer services at HMRC, said: “The 70-minute limiter is a technological limiter because at very busy times if you’ve got loads of people waiting in excess of 70 minutes, then it brings the system down.”

But Lloyd Hatton, Labour MP for South Dorset, asked why HMRC could not at least warn callers they would be cut off after 70 minutes. He added: “It’s a really appalling way to treat customers.” Ms Lloyd said: “That is something we can review and see if it is possible for us to do that.”