HMRC and VOA’s response to the Adjudicator’s Office 2024 annual report
HM Revenue and Customs' and the Valuation Office Agency’s response to the Adjudicator's Office annual report published in September 2024.
The Adjudicator’s Office Annual Report was published in September 2024. The report highlighted learning based on insight from complaints they investigated in 2023 to 2024. This is the department’s – HMRC’s and its executive agency, the Valuation Office Agency’s (VOA) – published response to the Adjudicator’s Annual Report.
We value the Adjudicator’s feedback and his continued support to help us achieve our vision of being a trusted, modern tax and customs organisation. This is Mike McMahon’s first report as the new Adjudicator, and we welcome Richard Fowler as the new Head of the Adjudicator’s Office.
The Adjudicator’s Annual Report highlighted the high volume of complaints we received during 2023 to 2024. We acknowledge that this was a difficult period as we faced serious challenges in delivering our customer services because of financial pressures and the need to manage a growing number of customers with complex tax affairs. Reducing demand for traditional contact channels like post and telephone, alongside the deployment of additional customer service advisers, has now enabled us to meet our telephony service standard and more effectively support those who need to speak to an adviser.
As noted in our Annual Report and Accounts, our strategy is firmly focused on how we can help more customers get things right first time, rather than fixing problems after they happen, and supporting more customers to self-serve using our online services. As more customers use our digital services, we will ensure that our customer service resource is focused on customers who need additional help.
Working together
We continue to work closely with the Adjudicator’s Office and embrace the two-way approach to feedback ensuring that we maximise learning from complaints to improve our services. The feedback we receive from the Adjudicator helps us to work towards our ambitions and deliver against our Charter and Compliance Professional Standards.
The introduction of the Adjudicator’s three-level reporting has supported even closer working between the organisations, with an open and constructive approach to identifying and engaging on issues. We have drawn insight from the Adjudicator’s Office to strengthen how we gather and share complaints insight on a quarterly basis, which has supported us to identify trends in customer issues.
The Adjudicator has played a valuable role at HMRC’s senior strategic forums, acting as a strong advocate for our customers.
Complaint handling
As noted in the Adjudicator’s Annual Report, we have taken a pro-active approach to addressing the cyclical nature of our complaints handling and seeking new and innovative ways to resolve the underlying causes of complaints. During 2023 to 2024, we conducted a deep dive into our complaints processes and handling to drive forward improvements to customer experience. This included resolving complaints at the earliest opportunity and we have seen an overall improvement in our 2024 to 2025 complaint performance as a result.
HMRC’s complaints strategy is aligned with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s UK Central Government Complaint Standards, which were developed in collaboration with government departments. The standards also align with HMRC’s Charter Standards and will deliver a consistent cross-government approach to complaint handling.
Learning from complaints
We continue to learn from the valuable insight gained through our complaints handling and have a multi-layered approach to gathering and acting on customer feedback, which is complemented by the feedback we receive from the Adjudicator and the Adjudicator’s Office.
Our Complaints Strategy and Insight Board (CSIB) continues to play a key role in providing oversight for the strategic direction of complaints and has supported work to address the Adjudicator’s feedback to improve customer experience.
We acted upon complaints insight to implement the following improvements for our customers during 2023 to 2024:
- delivery of a series of insight events on customer impacts for complaints handlers to build capability and improve customer experience
- support to complaint handlers to resolve issues at the first point of contact by enhancing our training products
- development of a digital complaint route for agents
Customer focus
The Adjudicator’s Annual Report references our readiness to learn from our customers by highlighting the reversal of our decision to close our Self Assessment, VAT and PAYE helplines in March 2024. We stopped our plans in response to feedback and engaged with stakeholders to ensure we met taxpayers’ needs as we continue to encourage more customers to self-serve online.
The HMRC Charter defines the service and standard of behaviour that customers should expect when interacting with us. We continue to embrace the charter as the driver for cultural change and we welcome the Adjudicator’s feedback and case studies to ensure the standards are embedded throughout HMRC, including in our decision making. We have improved our processes to help customers who need extra support and those experiencing financial hardship. For example, we have implemented guidance to support our colleagues in making decisions on suitable reasonable adjustments for our customers.
Performance
The Adjudicator’s Annual Report recognised the challenges faced by HMRC during 2023 to 2024 noting that, despite delay being a key feature in complaints, we made positive improvements to our service levels towards the end of the reporting year.
We saw a slight increase in receipts of new complaints during 2023 to 2024, up by 1% compared to 2022 to 2023. Delay in our operational services continued to be a key driver with complaints relating to difficulty contacting us during peak periods. Average response times for dealing with new complaints also continued to be higher than we would like at 35.7 days.
The Adjudicator’s Annual Report highlighted an increase in complaints received from HMRC customers, up 10% on the previous year and they also fully investigated more complaints than in 2022 to 2023.
We resolved over 98% of complaints internally and during 2023 to 2024 upheld rates at the Adjudicator stage were down by 6% to 41% including partially and fully upheld.
HMRC’s response to the Adjudicator’s Office Insight Report: Applying Customer Circumstances to Decision Making
We value the Adjudicator’s insight report on applying customer circumstances to decision making and welcome publication of the report to improve transparency. We have reviewed the recommendations within the report and have taken the following actions to respond to the feedback in line with our Charter Standards:
- launched a quality strategy to identify additional training requirements when applying customer circumstances to decision making
- raised awareness of applying customer circumstances to decision making through our internal complaint newsletter and Complaints Community Forum
- updated our internal guidance to support complaint handlers to identify customer vulnerabilities and fully consider their circumstances in the resolution of the complaint
- reviewed a sample of customer cases to gain insight on how we can effectively apply customer circumstances to decision making
Valuation Office Agency
Over the last year, the VOA has seen increased customer demand for its services. Following the closure of the 2017 non-domestic rating list, the VOA received a significant number of checks and a subsequent increase in the number of challenges. Alongside this, the VOA continued to see high numbers of customers looking to challenge their Council Tax band.
The VOA handled 1,346 complaints in 2023 to 2024 which was a 58% increase from 2022 to 2023. Despite the increase in complaints received, the VOA have not seen a similar rise in escalations to the Adjudicator’s Office, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new resolution-focused approach and commitment to providing excellent customer service.
The VOA benefit from a constructive working relationship with the Adjudicator’s Office and are pleased the Adjudicator recognises their progress in learning from complaints. This includes the introduction of quarterly complaints insight reports and sharing regular feedback on learning from complaints to support service improvements, resulting in better outcomes for customers.