19 July 2023
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has now published ‘HMRC Charter annual report: 2022 to 2023’. HMRC's annual report covers HMRC’s delivery against the HMRC Charter, including progress and priorities for further improvement.
HMRC deals with the tax and payments affairs of virtually every business and individual in the UK. The HMRC Charter sets out the relationship between HMRC and the customers, what customers can expect, and the behaviours HMRC expects of them.
The Charter annual report reviews HMRC’s performance against the Charter. It is provided by HMRC’s Customer Experience Committee and published by HMRC’s Commissioners.
This report covers April 2022 to March 2023, and:
- provides an assessment of HMRC’s performance against the Charter standards, which includes contributions from the Adjudicator and external stakeholders
- describes the work of the Customer Experience Committee throughout this period
- reviews progress against the recommendations set out in the 2021/22 report and the areas of focus for the forthcoming year.
It has been reported that in 2022/23, 15.9 million customers used their online personal tax account and 2.3 million customers used the HMRC mobile app, a total of 56.5 million times. The feedback showed that over 82% are satisfied with their experience of HMRC’s digital channels. On the other hand, customer experience of HMRC’s telephony channels, resulted in 54% of customers satisfied with the experience they received.
Jim Harra, HMRC First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive, said:
‘‘To meet our standards within our reducing departmental budget, we need to enable and encourage more customers to use our online services – that will both create a better customer experience for them and reduce demand for our phone and post services, freeing up our advisers to help those who need to speak or write to us. The key to doing this is through more and better online services which enable many more customers to resolve their issues quickly and easily.
In 2023, we’ll further improve the digital experience for our customers by introducing a new, single online account designed around customer tasks and needs, as well as enhancing the HMRC mobile app. From May 2023, Child Benefit customers are able to complete their claim fully online for the first time ever – and we’re adding more digital features all the time, including making it easier for customers to change their personal details or find their National Insurance Number.’’
Juliette Scott, HMRC Non-Executive Director, said:
‘‘Recognising the customer service and economic challenges that HMRC will continue to face during 2023 to 2024, the Committee has agreed with the HMRC Board that it will continue to support and challenge HMRC with its digital transformation. The Committee will focus on HMRC’s design and delivery of a single online customer account, ensuring it improves the end-to-end customer experience of HMRC and is exploited to its maximum benefit across the department. In addition, the Committee will ensure this digital transformation is underpinned by:
- a customer experience dashboard that provides multi-channel customer insight, providing a holistic picture of customer experience at an aggregate level
- improved customer communications and guidance to ensure customers choose to use HMRC’s digital services
- embedding of the Charter standards into all of HMRC’s decision making.
The Committee will also support the HMRC Board in other deep dives related to customer experience improvement.’’
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