Impact assessment

Self Assessment ‘seasonal’ line closure screening equality impact assessment

Published 19 October 2023

Project objectives

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will pilot a new seasonal model for the Self Assessment (SA) helpline, to prioritise helping those with urgent queries.

For three months from 12 June 2023, HMRC will trial directing SA queries from the helpline to the department’s digital services, including its online guidance, digital assistant, and webchat via IVR messages and SMS messages.

The vast majority of SA customers use our online services, with 97% filing online. The helpline will re-open on 4 September 2023 so customers can receive expert support in the 5 months running up to the SA deadline.

The change will free up HMRC’s helpline advisers to take urgent calls on other lines and respond to customer correspondence, allowing HMRC to help more customers when they need it and ensure that those who really need to speak to an adviser can do so.

The helpline will re-open for the run-up to the SA deadline, so customers will still have just under to 2 months to call HMRC before the paper filing deadline (31 October 2023) and up to 5 months to call HMRC before the main SA digital deadline on 31 January 2024, if they need to.

This is an Operational Delivery change and throughout this pilot, HMRC will closely monitor its effect on service performance and customer satisfaction to assess the impact of the change.

For customers that still require a paper form they can still phone the order line. Online Services Helpline (OSH) advisers can also give out the phone number or transfer to the order line.

Also, this pilot spans the peak time for those individuals who have a second payment on account which is due 31 July 2023. These customers phoning the SA helpline will be directed to the OSH helpline as above, these customers can also use the Debt Management SA helpline for help in making a payment.

Customer groups affected

All customers calling the SA helpline.

What customers need to do as a result of the change

Regardless of how a customer contacts HMRC by phone (mobile, landline, text relay) when a customer calls HMRC the customer will be offered various options based on their query. The following approaches will be deployed:

The customer will hear a voice recording which will give them details of online guidance and digital support channels. A customer who has a mobile phone will be offered an SMS on certain call journeys.

Customers, if not disconnected, can continue to route to further questions, and will hear any other signposting messages on the line.

At the end of each journey for all customers, and prior to all automatic disconnections, the customer will hear a voice message providing them with the OSH contact number, the customer will then be disconnected.

For customers who enter the phone line but do not interact i.e stay silent. They will be asked questions to try and gain some insight / interaction from the customer. If they continue to stay silent, they will be given options to press buttons 1,2 etc. If the customer still has no interaction, they will hear the final message that points them to the OSH helpline.

Bereavement customers where the service identifies these customers through speech will continue to be served as normal by the Bereavement team and speak to an adviser.

How customers will access this service

The customer will access the services for SA through the App, online channels with support from Webchat and Digital Assistant. Any customers calling the existing HMRC telephone number the voice messaging process will determine which route the customer is put through to. In some cases, the customer will get the option to answer yes/no questions, this will determine the direction their call will go.

When customers need to do this

The customer will need to follow the instructions played by the telephony service voice messages or text messages as directed.

Assessing the impact

We assessed the impact on those in protected characteristic groups in line with the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty and section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act: sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, people with dependants and those without (carers), political opinion (in Northern Ireland only).

There is no evidence to suggest any specific impacts on those customers within any of the protected characteristic groups listed above.

Potential impacts were identified on the following protected characteristic groups.

Racial groups

Impact on customers

Some customers will be impacted by the closure of the phone lines and deployment of voice recordings and text messages and SMS due to language barriers.

Some international customers will be unable to access digital services.

Proposed mitigation

Customers can access the services of agents and the voluntary community sector (VCS) organisations to support them to meet their tax obligations.

Customer can ask friends and family to contact HMRC via digital channels or contact the Online Services Helpline on their behalf. Customer can access the Extra Support Team (EST) directly via webchat which is signposted on GOV.UK. However, this does not extend to registering for online service outside without the Trusted Helper Scheme as this will require access via government gateway.

Disability

Impact on customers

The closure of the SA phone line may impact disabled customers. This is expected to be exacerbated for disabled digitally assisted and disabled digitally excluded customers who may be unable to use webchat, digital assistant and customers who require extra support, potentially due to mental health condition, learning disability and/or physical disability and unable to navigate themselves to the OSH or EST.

This impact may be felt more so by customers who require support to complete the paper SA100 as the deadline is sooner. The phone line will reopen on 4 September 2023, which will provide under 2 months for customers to access the support they may need. There is an expectation that the phone lines will be busy, and the customer may have lengthy wait.

Customers will not be informed that they can contact the Online Support Helpdesk by phone until the end of the call. The initial lack of signposting will impact all customers and potentially increase anxiety and frustration as they navigate through the deflection process.

Impact of the mitigations – voice recording and text message deflections.

Potential impact on those with:

• customers with visual impairments may be impacted as they may not be able see and/or read the text messages sent

• customers with hearing impairments may not be able to hear the instructions provided in the voice recordings messaging

• neurodivergent customers such as customers with dyslexia may struggle to read and understand the instruction and input keypad information

• customers with voice projection/speech disabilities may be unable to project their voice when using voice recordings

• customers with mental health conditions – the discontinuation of the call may result in increased anxiety for all customers including those with existing mental health conditions

• customers with learning and physical disabilities may not understand the instructions noted in the voice recordings and text messages or follow them and they may not have the physical ability to enter the required details via the keypad

Proposed mitigation

All customers that can digitally serve and do not need assistance will be expected to self-serve through digital channels and the app. Support can be accessed via webchat and digital assistant.

Callers who are unable to follow any deflections to digital, webchat and remain on the line will be provided with the OSH contact number via a voice message at the end of the query routing journey before being disconnected.

Links to self-service guidance and digital support channels will be given in voice messages for all customers regardless of whether they call in via landline or mobile and sent via SMS to customers via their mobile smart phone (for customer who agree and have a mobile phone).

Customers can access the services of agents and the voluntary community sector organisations to support them to meet their tax obligations.

Customer can ask friends and family to contact HMRC via digital channels or contact the Online Services Helpline on their behalf. Customer can access the EST directly via webchat which is signposted on GOV.UK. However, this does not extend to registering for online service outside without the Trusted Helper Scheme as this will require access via government gateway.

Bereavement customers where the service identifies these customers through speech will continue to be served as normal by the Bereavement team and speak to an adviser. For customers that still require a paper form they can still phone the order line, OSH advisers can also give out the phone number or transfer to the order line.

Customers who are unable to project their voice for the IVR when calling HMRC are routed to an option menu for that line of business where they can use the keypad to select options.

To ensure they are easy to understand and follow, all SMS messages have been reviewed by HMRC Communications and Security teams prior to being published.

GOV.UK pages have been reviewed to ensure Government Digital Service (GDS) accessibility checks had been completed.

Customer regardless of whether they are receiving a text message and continue to route will also hear the IVR message which plays the Online Service Helpdesk to the customer over the phone To mitigate against customers being concerned about fraud the text message advises of the following:

Please do not reply to this text. Do not give out private information (such as bank details or passwords), download attachments or click on any links in emails or texts if you’re not sure they’re genuine.

Text relay service is still available and can be used as normal in all lines the 3rd person would continue to assist the customer navigate the speech / IVR services and respond as they do now. There is then a final option to contact Online Service Helpline 0300 200 3600 for anyone requiring further assistance.

It’s expected that the OSH team will triage customers and refer customers with extra support needs to the extra support team for individual support.

Age

Impact on customers

Evidence shows that over-65s are more likely to be impacted due to being less digitally able. Moreover, customers aged over 65 are more likely to have hearing and visual impairments as well as neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease.  Similarly, those aged over 65 are much more likely to have physical impairments and impaired motor functions. The impact of these could include limited dexterity and difficulty in using SMS functions and smart phone keyboards.

The over 65 age group, have fewer sources of support in accessing in digital services.

The 16 to 24 age group could be impacted if they do not have a NINO or other identifier. This may mean that they will not be verify their identification in order to self-serve through Personal Tax Account or Business Tax Account.

This impact may be felt more so by customers who require support to complete the paper SA100 as the deadline is sooner. The phone line will reopen on the 4 September 2023, which will provide under 2 months for customers to access the support they may need. There is an expectation that the phone lines will be busy, and the customer may have lengthy wait.

Proposed mitigation

Mitigations and provisions as noted for disabled customers.

Customers identified as not having a NINO through IVR questioning will not receive an SMS option and will continue to route through the phone line and will hear any steering / informational messages, if they remain on the line, they will hear a final message steering to the OSH helpline.

Religion and religious beliefs

Impact on customers

Some customers may be unable to interact digitally due to their religious beliefs.

Proposed mitigation

Callers who are unable to follow any deflections to digital, webchat and remain on the line will be provided with the OSH contact number via a voice message at the end of the query routing journey before being disconnected.

People who use different languages (Including Welsh Language and British Sign Language)

Impact on customers

There may be an impact on customers who are unable to understand the IVR messages or read English SMS messages.

SMS – Neither the IVR deflection or the SMS service includes a Welsh language option. If a customer calls and says they want to proceed in Welsh, they will be routed to the Welsh language team.

Proposed mitigation

It’s expected that friends and family and the VCS will be able to support customers with language barriers.

In addition, those who contact the OSH via phone or contact the EST directly via webchat will be supported by the ‘BIG WORD’ interpretation services as normal business as usual practice this will not change on OSH or EST, including BSL if needed.

There is a dedicated Welsh phoneline for Welsh speaking customers where the SMS deflection has not been deployed.

In the phone service where a customer mentions Welsh e,g Welsh Tax, Welsh rate of Income tax, we ask the question ‘would you like to continue your call in Welsh?’ and if they say ‘yes’ the call is passed over to the Welsh language line.

Opportunities to promote equalities

We have considered opportunities to promote equalities and good relations between people in each of the protected characteristic groups and those outside of that group.

A full Equality Impact Assessment is not recommended.

Additional mitigations/changes made following closure

This screening equality impact assessment was completed prior to the closure of the SA helpline.

Following the closure further mitigations were added following external feedback to lessen the impact felt by some customers, including amending the voice recording to emphasis support for those with health conditions and disabilities and repeating the OSH twice.