My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me this HMRC announcement about Ruth Owen:
"HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, Ruth Owen, is to leave the Civil Service in May.Ruth joined the Civil Service 27 years ago, starting in a local Social Security office. After a career in operational delivery, project delivery and strategy she joined HMRC to lead Personal Tax in 2012, before becoming our first Director General for Customer Services last year.We’ll be able to share more details on Ruth's future plans in the next few weeks.Ruth said: “I have loved my time in HMRC and I leave feeling immensely proud of what we have achieved. The last five years have seen some significant changes in the service we provide to our customers, the way we think about our customers as well as how we do business and how we work together. I know I will greatly miss so many fantastic people and teams, who I’ve been privileged to work with over the last five years. All our achievements are down to the passion, commitment and hard work of Team HMRC and our shared desire to make a difference.“It has been a difficult decision to leave. We are now embarking on an exciting new phase of Building our Future, aiming to be the best customer service organisation in the UK, and offering world-class digital services, which our customers really rate. But I have a one-off opportunity to try a different career in the private sector that will offer me new challenges and the opportunity to develop a new set of skills.“I have particularly enjoyed working under both Lin and Jon’s leadership. I feel really optimistic and confident in HMRC’s future and wish Jon and my ExCom colleagues well in steering the department towards our vision.”Jon Thompson, Chief Executive, said: “Ruth will be hard to replace; her energy and dedication to brilliant customer services is an inspiration. Ruth’s experience and insight will be missed around the ExCom table and her drive for ever greater performance will be missed in Customer Services, but I wish her well as she embarks on a new career in the private sector.”We’ll shortly announce who will lead Customer Services Group in the interim, and HMRC will begin an open competition for a new Director General very shortly."
Leaving to join the private sector, anyone know where?
Tax does have to be taxing.
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HMRC "aiming to be the best customer service organisation in the UK"? Hahahahahahaha. April fools day has gone, has it not? I bet some people who say these things would put that stuff on their CV, and not even blush.
ReplyDeleteI think any Senior Personnel at HMRC have to go through the Business Appointments process when moving to the private sector? This is presumably to stop anyone using their power and contacts to get that big pay day (when the rest of the country is suffering austerity and when HMRC staff on pay freezes have to take all the flack for the mismanagement of the place). When we have some news I am sure the media will scrutinise the details of her "future plans".
Is it any wonder morale is low, the service is poor, and it is mismanaged from top to bottom?
ReplyDeleteIts all in the culture. The days of a public service ethos are gone. The message the staff at the coal face seem to repeatedly get from senior management is all about "me me me me me me". That is not leadership.
The media reported that the 'customer service' from HMRC is "worse than abysmal". Reading the above memo made me wonder if they are talking about the same HMRC?
ReplyDelete'Nuff said by first 3 posts, nothing further to see here, move along.
ReplyDeleteRevolving doors, again?
I think a lot of the criticism is fair, but 'revolving door' probably isn't.
Delete27 years in the Civil Service and 5 in this job would suggest this isn't someone who revolves in and out of the public/private sectors.
Makes you wonder what the new job is? Why's it a secret for now? Oh, and many years do senior civil servants have to do before they get the taxpayer funded gold-plated pension?
Delete20 years will qualify a senior civil servant to draw a two-thirds final salary pension
DeleteWhen they say about the job being available through an "open competition" do they mean open competition?
ReplyDeleteWill they assess all the talent available in the United Kingdom, including within the staff of HMRC, to make sure they get someone who can improve upon the current dire situation, or are we talking about it be open to a very select number of people already swimming in the senior civil service pool?
I am sure talent among frontline HMRC staff, the accountancy profession and owners of SMEs, who have first hand experience of HMRC would be best placed to drive it forward to a destination where the 'service' is genuinely of a top quality standard, and where an old-fashioned, back-to-basics 'revenue protection' focus is put front and centre of everything. Right, so where do we send the applications?
Its open to anyone to apply.
DeleteJust search for it on Civil Service Jobs and good luck!
Hooray....great news.....another incompetent rat jumps the sinking ship....she was worse than useless...the sad thing is her job will be filled by the same old same old.....we are sinking fast
ReplyDeleteJon Thompson says she will be "hard to replace".
DeleteHe has really gone out of his way to sound truly gutted !! ;)
DeleteEnough is a enough... it is long overdue for the Govt to take action over HMRC... if they can't split it into new depts along the lines of IR and C&E then at least consider privatising it... it always seems to be all about the careers of senior management and not enough about what they're paid to do e.g. serve their stakeholders - taxpayers and the general public... the incompetence from them is embarrassing... privatise it!!!
DeleteWow, a "one-off opportunity" in the private sector, what can that possibly mean?
ReplyDelete'Team HMRC'. Ah-hahahaha. Fuck off.
ReplyDeleteDo Hmrc really need to backfill the Director General Customer Services Group role?
ReplyDeleteWhat do they do, organise talking shops? The 'service' from Hmrc is poor to say the least, so can't comment on what value the role creates (if any). Instead of wasting huge salaries on pointless jobs, how about putting that saving into recruiting and training an extra 5-7 staff to pick up the telephone calls? Hmrc have far too many remote senior managers.
Did she jump or was she pushed?
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a lot of activity and associated effect bumping against the Muppets lately. Perhaps with ineffective Hodge out of the way actions are now having more effect than mere words.
She wont be missed, shes an absolute nightmare. Dosnt have a clue about staff or running a business.
ReplyDeleteWas the same Ruth Owen formerly the Chief Operating Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions?
DeleteAs a tax payer who posted earlier bout my experience of calling HMRC I can honestly say I never knew HMRC offered any 'customer service' and what they do provide is far, far, far from "brilliant" as referred to above.They might as well say when I rang them "we can't help, go away". If they were a business in the private sector they would not survive economic reality.
ReplyDelete