Much like Santa Claus, HMRC seems to be suffering from a bulging sack.
John Battle MP (Leeds) recently claimed that a six week backlog of mail has built up at HMRC's offices in Lisbon Street. Mr Battle discovered the backlog after phoning up HMRC on behalf of a firm in his constituency.
The call took a somewhat circuitous route, first to Cardiff then to Wrexham.
Mr Battle is quoted in the Yorkshire Evening Post:
"People's papers seem to be scattered around the country with no serious tracking mechanism.
People really do want a more satisfactory service, not least because it could mean a serious risk to jobs at a time when there is a squeeze.
I am tabling questions to ask whether the Treasury can address the responsiveness of the Leeds tax office.
If they need more staff, get a few more staff to cope with the pressure and help stop businesses from going under."
HMRC have denied that there was a six week backlog in unopened post.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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"HMRC seems to be suffering from a bulging sack"...
ReplyDelete...the harsh reality is there is no "seems" about it. Sad to say but the "post mountain" at HMRC is very much a permanent feature. While the out-of-touch senior managers award themselves performance bonuses for accelerating their programme of office closures and swingeing job cuts (all in the name of "efficiency" and saving money) the situation is only going to get very much worse. Taxpayers and claimants should absolutely not have to put up with this appalling state of affairs. As for the staff at HMRC, they live in fear of losing their jobs should they dare to tell the truth about work arrears as they are bullied by managers to report “nil work on hand”. Very handy that as anyone making a FOI request for details of the department’s true workstate will automatically be provided with the “official” workflow/workstate stats which, surprise surprise, will show virtually nil post on hand. This is nothing short of scandalous as the department is largely staffed according to these “official” stats. Meantime, Gordon Brown and his pals at the Treasury are, in turn, led to believe that everything is rosy in the HMRC garden.
Someone should help the poor RACS "Post on Hand" staff at the Leicester and Northants Service Office. The last I heard, it's a 22 week turnaround.
ReplyDeleteNo - I must have dreamt it...
More damming evidence...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/02/government_records_wrong/
"HMRC have denied that there was a six week backlog in unopened post."
ReplyDelete.... most likely true.... maybe the right question to ask is how much of a backlog is there in opened post??
Regardless of the 'official' line, there is a backlog of post in virtually all offices. Reported figures are constantly manipulated to paint a far rosier picture to the higher ups than the reality.
And should anyone at the coal face be brave enough to question the stats, they are accused of being negative, or not seeing the 'bigger picture'
Anon 2/01, 1708,
ReplyDeleteWell spotted, but where do the dams come into it? :)