HMRC ‘in disarray’ amid delays and fraud losses Charlotte Gifford in the Telegraph says HMRC is “in disarray,” accusing the tax office of failing in its primary tasks of “chasing those who break the rules and helping taxpayers get their tax affairs right in the first place.” She points to two “damning” Public Accounts Committee reports published this year, with one condemning HMRC for its “unacceptable” levels of customer service and the other criticising the tax office for failing to recoup the revenue lost to tax evaders. Ms Gifford highlights that taxpayers calling HMRC are waiting for an average of 21 minutes before their call is answered, compared to a pre-pandemic wait time of just five minutes. Staff cuts and HMRC’s working home policy have been blamed for the delays. Over the past five years, the tax office has cut its customer-facing staff from 25,500 to 19,500. Richard Wild, of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, said HMRC is cutting staff numbers in anticipation of efficiencies and time savings from digitalisation “which have not yet arrived.” The ICAEW has warned that taxpayers could face more delays, with hundreds of tax office workers set to go on strike this month. Ms Gifford also suggests that HMRC “has given up” on retrieving all the money lost through pandemic support schemes, with it expecting to recover just £1.1bn of the £4.5bn in fraud and error losses.