Adjudicator’s Office report 2012/13 not good reading for HMRC
The Annual Report for the year ended 31st March 2013 recently published by the Adjudicator’s Office reveals that 1,331 new complaints about a range of taxation issues was received, representing an increase of 107% on the previous year and accounted for 52% of the total number of complaints received.
New complaints referred to the Adjudicator used to average between 120 – 150 a month but in the year to 31st March 2013 unprecedented increases led to only one month falling below 140. In October and January cases soared to over 300.
PAYE and Tax Credit complaints were by 347% and 59% respectively on the year ended 31st March 2011. Once again a large proportion of the PAYE complaints concerned the operation of Extra-Statutory Concession A19 which allows for tax arrears to be written off in a given set of circumstances.
For the first time since the role of Adjudicator began 20 years ago, six out of every ten complaints about HMRC were upheld either wholly or in part.
The role of The Adjudicator is to act as an independent complaint handler in matters of disputes involving HMRC, Valuation Office and The Insolvency Service. Whilst the Adjudicator, cannot consider disputes about aspects of departmental policy and matters of law she can look at complaints about:
- mistakes;
- unreasonable delays;
- poor and misleading advice;
- inappropriate staff behaviour; or
- the use of discretion.
HMRC were recommended to pay compensation to taxpayers because of the poor level of service they received. This totalled nearly £1.2 million being comprised as follows:
| Reason for redress | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| Worry & distress |
55,329 |
| Poor complaints handling |
25,980 |
| Tax given up |
905,614 |
| Costs |
207,108 |
A number of areas were identified where there was systematic failure within HMRC resulting in poor complaints handling. Frequent and repetitive types of issues included failure to follow policy or proper procedure; inconsistent application of equalities legislation; mistakes giving inaccurate information; and recording incorrect details, to name but a few!
Many of the cases reviewed by the Adjudicator included careless and avoidable errors which had not been identified or corrected during HMRC’s handling of the complaint. Opportunities to put things right at an early stage were missed causing the Adjudicator to voice her disappointment.
HMRC has accepted all the Adjudicator’s recommendations to put things right in the future.
The Adjudicator plays an important role where taxpayers are dissatisfied and frustrated by HMRC’s service but if their complaints cannot be resolved by The Adjudicator’s Office they can still ask an MP to refer their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for further consideration.
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