As per The Mirror:
A disabled single mum fought back tears today as she told MPs of her treatment at the hands of shamed tax credits firm Concentrix.
Sarah Broome, 30, was told to ask for her benefits back in a hand-written letter - despite the fact she has one hand and suffers chronic pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.
The mum-of-two told MPs her tax credits were stopped in August after she was "financially connected" to a person she had never heard of.
She spent 19 hours and 57 minutes on the phone to the US outsourcing firm in six weeks - including one day when she was blocked by an engaged tone 70 times.
Eventually she got through to an advisor but was told she could not send a letter using a dictation service.
"They told me 'well, you are just going to have to get someone else to write it for you'. They were the exact words.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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There are too many victims of HMRC, and the story of Sarah Broome's mistreatment is inhumanely disgusting. HMRC are an immoral outfit - the organisation is rife with poor management from the very top to the most junior level, bullying, malpractice, incompetence, downward blame shifting, lack of accountability for the untouchables, a lack of regard for the real world, insufficient or no training to do the jobs, pointless meeting after pointless meeting, bingo games, centuplicated stats for the most basic of tasks, cake eating marathons (those who do not take part are marked down on 'behaviours'), outdated IT, too many staff in non-jobs, away days for senior manager at Chelsea and Arsenal, waste, waste and more waste. Anyone who tells the truth is smeared and they crush dissent it seems like a totalitarian regime. You really could not make it up its just plain CRUEL. Time to privatise the whole thing or at least create a new department.
ReplyDeleteIt's a third rate public service department with no concept of public service. It says it is "customer focussed" but has closed all the advice centres. It is closing 130+ offices to retreat further from the public it is supposed to serve. It is self serving. Managers have created more managers in their own likeness. There is now one "leader" for four staff. All these leaders / managers have to attend endless management meetings. The department has created an enormous structure of corporate communicators whose job is to manufacture success stories and push out propaganda. Thousands of tax experts wil be disposed of and replaced by cheaper new recruits who can only function by blindly following mandatory working instructions.
ReplyDeleteThis makes HMRC sound like some authoritarian communist organisation - "retreating from the public", "self serving", "manufactured success stories", "tax experts will be disposed of" and replaced by workers (who sound like machines) blindly "following" working instructions. Run for the people at the top and propaganda for the rest?
DeleteWe are talking about an arm of the Great British Civil Service, admired around the world. Is there any evidence of that it is really as bad as this?
HMRC is a great place to work.... so long as you are an uneducated yes person and/or lazy...
DeleteI can absolutely verify, based on years of personal experience, observation and despair, that HMRC is as described here.
DeleteYou MAY be OK if you tow the line without question and buy in enthusiastically to every crackpot initiative launched.
However, any form of dissent against the Rat King is met with punitive measures ranging from subtle undermining to open and insidious bullying.
Many people have evidence of such activities. The problem is that in order to make the evidence stick, an individual has to go through horrific grievance processes (often with little or no help, TUS included) all of which are stacked against the individual. Many people make the early decision that they would rather retain their sanity rather than spending the rest of their days fighting the Establishment.
Evidence is also difficult to keep where there is a departmental policy (misusing the Data Protection Act) of regular "PC sweeping".
What is required is a thorough forensic investigation, by an independent body, questioning and obtaining evidence from staff away from management interference.
There is enough evidence out there to warrant this e.g. numerous examples of HMRC alleged "irregularities" in the press, PAC etc. I can only think that the powers that be do not want such an investigation. I wonder why that could be?
It's as if they have read 1984 and thought it was an instruction manual.
DeleteEvidence might include the Staff Survey Outcomes/Engagement Index results along with evidence submitted to grievance or resolving issues (LOL) preoceedings. Then there are the numerous MP's and investigative Reporters, GP's and other medical professionals, thats before approaching the staff!
DeleteAnonymous at 14:00, I am neither lazy nor an uneducated Yes person. I am also not dishonest as unfortunately some in the management layers are, to some extent because they're forced to be dishonest to protect their own backs. Managers who try to tell the truth are soon slapped down and threatened. If the truth about some of what is going on, with senior management directly contravening HMRC's own guidance, ever comes out, it should result in some high-profile resignations and sackings. Don't hold your breath - staff further down the chain understandably aren't willing to risk their job, their sanity, or worse, to take on those who are untouchable. The same sort of fear and tactics entrapped those living in eastern Europe pre-1989, and yet the PCS adore the Marxist idiot Corbyn - and by so doing lose further credibility - while seemingly making very little or no effort to expose the rotten elements in HMRC. Makes me wonder if despite all the bluster they're all in it together.
DeleteI talk from inside the shithole....it really is one big toilet....they are screwing the staff to high heaven....get them in the long grass is my motto...you cannot win against these robots...but you can find a way to confuse the enemy.
DeleteAs a victim of HMRC's thuggish behaviour I can confirm the various accounts of how they act are consistent with my own experience. The sanctimonious image they choose to present to the public is not the real HMRC.
DeleteThe Civil Service Code (and basic human decency the world over) requires Honesty. I am thinking of buying HMRC a dictionary so that they can learn a little more about what Honesty means...
DeleteAny Hmrc management who have failed to do their job to a reasonable standard and who are implicated in the Concentrix affair should be disciplined. The consequences of this murky issue are disgusting. Many employers would sack staff for less but those Hmrc guys seem untouchable.
DeleteAre HMRC lazy?
DeleteWell they took 6 months to reply to a complaint about their staff's mishandling of my tax, managing to loose 2 bits of correspondence in the process, so people will reach their own conclusions I am sure.
Yes HMRC are lazy and waste your taxpayer pounds. A lovely thought when get up at 4.30am to graft to pay for it all. Tax does indeed have to be taxing.
DeleteThe HMRC incompetents sent me a letter about my tax with sensitive & confidential information back in August. It never turned up. Make of that what you will. Either they lied and didn't send it, or they have failed to look after personal data by sending it securely. Royal mail can't find it so I do now suspect they are liars. Whatever happened to 'taxpayer confidentiality'. So yes I would add the word unprofessional to the word lazy.
Delete"Managers have created more managers in their own likeness" says the above. A frightening prospect. Dishonest bullying clones???
ReplyDeleteCan we at least have some acknowledgement that many of the problems (and I don't dispute the existence of them for one moment) have been caused by the outsourcing mania of the last 20-odd years? This has meant work which used to be done by dedicated public servants who were fully aware of their responsibilities has been handed over on highly favourable terms to companies you wouldn't want sweeping the road outside your house. These companies then hire people straight off the street with no expertise or experience and who are subject to the results-obsessed management of the company, with the inevitable consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is down to the mismanagement of HMRC and it would be incredible to pretend they are the 'goog guys' in this great mess. The outsourcing companies have been in business making profit for a number of years, which is to be applauded, so they must be doing something right. At the end of the day HMRC have a made choice to outsource certain parts of their work, nobody made them do it - I note the outsourced bits are usually the 'dirty work' which will attract bad publicity and they appear to use outsourcing to buffer the blame to retain their self-styled holier than thou image - the public can see right through that and with the tax credit debacle they've been found out once again.
DeleteHMRC does have many dedicated public servants, and lets be honest many who are not, and for those have that public service ethos they have all enthusiasm knocked out of them by the bullying & harassment, by the lack of training, by the pointless meetings, by the stats, by the lack of career progressions, and by the totally understandable lack of support from the public & the media which is usually down to the ridiculous decisions taken by senior management - just one example how do those away days for their powerful staff at Arsenal & Chelsea look to Joe Public in these times of austerity???
Above comment should say it would be incredible for HMRC to pretend they are the 'GOOD guys' in this great mess.
DeleteLooks like HMRC's Ruth Owen has been handing out Diversity awards this week - back in the real world DIVERSITY should mean treating ALL staff with dignity, honesty & respect. Until HMRC cut out the bullying and get real these awards are of little benefit other than PR.
DeleteAnd how many staff in HMRC are now engaged in promoting Social Mobility??? Leave that to the politicians and community volunteers, they are paid huge wages from the public to run a TAX COLLECTING organisation and should get on with REAL WORK!!!!!!
On the issue of HMRC. Accounts of management treating staff like dirt (at best) and treating themselves to luxurious treats while simultaneously preaching to the decent majority about diversity, inclusion and social mobility - it sounds a lot like they're a bunch of patronising, hypocritical, champagne socialists to me.
DeleteIt's gone too far to save now. Gordon Brown created a monster. A lot of good staff in HMRC are holding the dept together. Many will leave due to the move to 13 centres. It will then collapse.
ReplyDeleteIt's an immorally unprofessional, poorly managed, brutal authoritarian regime run for the benefit of the self serving people at the top - it deserves to fail.
DeleteDiversity and HMRC?
ReplyDeleteJust does not seem to ring true somehow.
I'm sure they believe, but believing is not the same as practicing what ye preach.
Maybe, in a utopian society that is neither Lean nor Common Purposed...damn, start again.
I believe...
Respect for Diversity is a great principle. Its about treating EVERYONE with respect, it could just be called being a decent human being. I can confirm HMRC do not practice what they breach. Action and practice demonstrate commitment to the principle, not words and PR stunt awards at the taxpayers expense. HMRC just look like hypocrites.
DeleteMessage to the P.M.
ReplyDeleteIt is a distinct probabilty that the ineptitude, civil and criminal lawbreaking and arrogance exhibited by the collective HMRC (mis)management is costing the UK billions in lost revenue.
It may be the right time to consider shining the spotlight on this department and changing that perspective.
Respectfully...
Perhaps people should take their legitimate concerns re the mismanagement of HMRC to the newspapers e.g. The Daily Mail & Telegraph, and broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 and invite them to investigate. If its costing the exchequer lost revenue then it is surely in the public interest. That type of media action has been proven to bring about the beginning of substantial change and high profile resignations with other stories in the past. All concerned parties should send them an email inviting them to take a closer look...
DeleteThe media should also be aware of the HMRC away days at famous football grounds. There may be some who think its a trivial concern but in times of austerity, and at time when HMRC have plenty of their own office space to hold such events, it demonstrates the arrogance running through their management and an apparent casual misuse of public funds. The media could investigate, but my guess is those away days cost thousands and thousands of pounds and I would pose the question: would the average member of the public of modest means - say a tax credit claimant or small business owner who have been treated pretty roughly - think that its trivial???
DeleteI work hard and pay tax for decent public services.
DeleteNot for the self serving elite at HM Revenue & Customs to enjoy treats such as described above.
Said it before, but worth repeating, would like to see Michael Mansfield QC undertake a class action lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteWe can but hope!