Response to BBC Watchdog investigation of HMRC customer services

In a statement we told the show: 

“Our members in HMRC’s Customer Services work exceptionally hard to help customers with frequently complex tax queries. The majority of those HMRC staff who are handling front-line queries from the public and businesses on a daily basis, are amongst the lowest-paid staff in the department; with thousands of those staff paid barely above the National Minimum Wage. They work in a highly-pressurised environment and are heavily monitored, frequently to the point of micro-management. 

“Unsurprisingly, given the importance and complexity of the work they do; the combination of the pressure, the constraints imposed on them by management and ministers, and the appalling levels of pay, has resulted in low morale and a massive turnover amongst these vital front-line staff.

“PCS has continually warned that it would be impossible for these issues not to affect the level of customer service our members work hard to provide. We have called on the government to radically increase pay and improve both staffing levels and the working environment, so these structural problems can be addressed; not just to the benefit of our members, but to the members of the public who use our essential services.”  

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