Corporate report

HMRC monthly performance update: December 2020

Published 4 February 2021

These figures show our main customer service performance indicators, which are about:

• how we’re helping our online customers
• how quickly we answer their phone calls
• how quickly we handle their post
• how we handle complaints

1. At a glance

These are the figures for our customer service contact volumes, and performance of our main customer service performance indicators compared to the same time last year.

The impact of, and our role in responding to coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to have a significant impact both on the way we work and our immediate priorities. In light of the situation, HMRC has not set formal performance targets for customer service for 2020 to 2021. We have published what we expect our performance to be at the end of quarter 4 in our quarter 3 performance publication. You can view our 2019 to 2020 targets in previous publications.

As 2019 to 2020 came to a close, we were starting work on the rapid and successful delivery of the government’s COVID-19 financial support schemes.

In 2020 to 2021, we will continue delivering the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and Statutory Sick Pay Rebate.

We’ve been at the heart of the government’s response, continuing the building and launching of unprecedented financial COVID-19 support schemes, moving rapidly to become part of the UK’s national resilience and pandemic response – but we are also focused on delivering our core work to support businesses and individuals as they get back on their feet, fund our public services and help get the economy moving again.

1.1 Contact volumes

Note: demand for our customer services may vary significantly between months due to the seasonal nature of revenue and customs administration.

	Current month	Year-to-date since April 2020	Compared to year-to-date 2019-20
iForms received	136,017	1,910,095	1,544,928
Calls received	2,962,039	23,671,185	31,853,337
Post received [1]	1,225,310	11,710,078	13,356,371
New complaints received [2]	4,802	55,557	48,814

Notes

1. Post is not always categorised on our live system during the month it is received, meaning that numbers may be revised in subsequent monthly reports.
2. Complaints are not always logged on our live system during the month they are received, and the numbers may be revised in subsequent monthly reports.

1.2 Performance

	Current month	Year-to-date since April 2020	Compared to year-to-date 2019-20
Customer satisfaction with digital services	86.6%	85.7%	81.1%
Customer iForms cleared within 7 days of receipt	49.0%	80.6%	89.8%
Average speed of answering a customer’s call [1]	13 minutes 04 seconds	10 minutes 48 seconds	6 minutes 48 seconds
Customers waiting more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser	47.4%	42.2%	30.8%
Customer post cleared within 15 days of receipt [2]	42.5%	75.5%	68.9%
Customer post cleared within 40 days of receipt [3]	88.4%	92.3%	85.4%
Handle tax credits and Child Benefit claims and change of circumstance (UK) [3]	13.8	10.6	13.4
Handle tax credits and Child Benefit claims and change of circumstance (international) [3]	65.3	58.8	62.8

Notes

1. Average speed of answer data is recorded from the time a customer requests to speak to an adviser, after going through our automated routing response system until the call is answered by the adviser.
2. Post turnaround refers to post to which customers require a response.
3. This data is lagged by a month.

All 2019 to 2020 data and the figures reported during the year 2020 to 2021 are compiled from initial management information to provide an indication of our performance. They are subject to revision and audit. Final full-year performance figures will be published in our annual report and accounts.

2. Customer satisfaction with digital services

This month, the percentage of customers who were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with our digital services was:

86.6%

This graph shows our in-month and year-to-date digital customer satisfaction in 2020 to 2021 - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Customers ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with our digital services (%)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Monthly	83.9	87.9	83.6	85.9	88.5	84.9	84.7	83.7	86.6
Year-to-date	83.9	86.4	85.6	85.7	86.2	86.0	85.9	85.6	85.7

3. iForms

We received more than 136,000 iForms this month and we turned around:

49.0% of customer iForms within 7 days

4. Phones

We aim for a consistent service across our phone helplines. We received more than 2.9 million calls this month.

4.1 Average speed of answering a call

This month, we answered our phones in an average of:

13 minutes 04 seconds

This graph shows our in-month and year-to-date average speed of answer, set against 2019 to 2020 performance - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Average speed of answering a phone call (minutes:seconds)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Monthly	12:17	14:59	9:15	8:21	10:19	8:22	9:42	12:45	13:04
Year-to-date	12:17	13:49	11:57	10:53	10:47	10:19	10:13	10:32	10:48

4.2 Customers waiting for more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser

This month, the percentage of customers who waited more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser:

47.4%

This graph shows our in-month and year-to-date percentage of customers who waited for more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser in 2020 to 2021 - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Customers who waited for more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser (%)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Monthly	53.5	53.9	36.4	36.2	45.8	34.9	31.4	48.4	47.4
Year-to-date	53.5	53.7	46.6	43.5	43.9	42.2	40.6	41.6	42.2

5. Post

We received more than 860,000 items of post this month for which customers require a response.

This month, we turned around:

42.5% of customer post within 15 working days

This graph shows the in-month and year-to-date percentage of post turned around within 15 working days in 2020 to 2021 - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Post turned around within 15 working days (%)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Monthly	79.8	87.4	82.4	76.8	81.5	83.3	80.7	60.3	42.5
Year-to-date	79.8	84.3	83.6	81.9	81.8	82.0	81.8	79.2	75.5

6. Tax credits and Child Benefit

This month, we handled claims and changes of circumstances for UK customers within an average of:

13.8 days

And we handled claims and changes of circumstances for international customers within an average of:

65.3 days

7. Complaints

We want to get all our interactions with customers right first time, but if a customer is unhappy with our service, we aim to resolve their complaint quickly and fairly.

Read more detailed guidance on how we handle and resolve complaints.

Definitions

A ‘Tier 1 complaint’ is when a customer complains and we aim to resolve their case at this stage.

A ‘Tier 2 complaint’ is when a customer is dissatisfied with our decision on their initial complaint (Tier 1) and they have asked us to look at their concerns again.

‘Fully upheld’ means we agree with the main part of a customer’s complaint.

‘Partially upheld’ means we agree with some, but not all of, a customer’s complaint.

‘Not upheld’ means we don’t agree with a customer’s complaint.

7.1 Tier 1 complaints

We received 4,802 Tier 1 complaints this month.

This graph shows the number of Tier 1 complaints HMRC has received since April 2020, compared to the same time last year - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Tier 1 complaints received

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
2020 to 2021	5,486	7,468	7,606	6,463	5,376	6,262	6,078	6,016	4,802
2019 to 2020	5,693	5,716	5,055	5,831	5,518	5,843	5,821	5,320	4,017

Note: complaints are not always logged on our live system during the month they are received and the numbers can, therefore, be revised upwards for subsequent monthly reports. The current month will be subject to greatest revision.

Tier 1 complaints cleared (%)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Tier 1 complaints fully upheld	28.8	23.7	24.1	26.1	26.3	29.0	31.2	28.6	30.2
Tier 1 complaints partially upheld	17.9	13.8	14.0	12.8	14.5	14.3	14.7	16.5	15.1
Tier 1 complaints not upheld	53.3	62.5	61.9	61.1	59.2	56.7	54.1	54.9	54.7

Note: due to rounding, these figures may not add up to 100%.

7.2 Tier 2 complaints

We received 331 Tier 2 complaints this month.

This graph shows the number of Tier 2 complaints HMRC has received since April 2020, compared to the same time last year - the data used to create this graph is available in a table after this image.

Tier 2 complaints received

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
2020 to 2021	286	471	634	514	479	483	489	474	331
2019 to 2020	369	330	315	352	321	346	437	458	320

Note: complaints are not always logged on our live system during the month they are received and the numbers can, therefore, be revised upwards for subsequent monthly reports. The current month will be subject to greatest revision.

Tier 2 complaints cleared (%)

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Tier 2 complaints fully upheld	22.1	12.5	5.2	13.5	11.4	14.9	15.4	19.0	14.0
Tier 2 complaints partially upheld	22.9	18.9	12.2	11.1	19.1	14.1	16.1	18.6	17.8
Tier 2 complaints not upheld	55.0	68.6	82.6	75.4	69.4	71.0	68.5	62.4	68.2

Note: due to rounding, these figures may not add up to 100%.