Britannia Radio

Could be worth watching - ITV tonight at 8pm ?

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TELEGRAPH 6.4.09
Inland Revenue 'bins letters and ignores phone calls'
The Inland Revenue's phone service is a "massive mess" with mistakes
ignored and letters binned, according to a whistle-blower.

By Daily Telegraph Reporter

The Inland Revenue's phone service is a "massive mess" with mistakes
ignored and letters thrown away, according to a whistle-blower
featured in a television documentary tonight.

The anonymous insider said that staff were told to ignore errors in
records to save time, ensuring call targets are met, according to
ITV's Tonight programme. She said: "Staff have actually been told
that when someone rings in with a tax inquiry and you spot a mistake
on a person's record, you have to ignore it unless they have actually
asked you to look at that mistake. It's all about the government
target of answering so many calls in a day.

"And if you write in, the post often goes missing. It just
disappears, just gets binned. Last week we had a situation where half-
a-million payment reminder letters were sent out late, meaning people
were being threatened with surcharges and penalties they might not
even owe. It's a massive mess."

The Inland Revenue work force has been cut by 17,000 since 2005 in an
"efficiency" drive.

ITV said that complaints to the independent Adjudicator's Office have
doubled in that period. The programme, Taking On the Taxman: Tonight,
shown tonight on ITV1 at 8pm, includes an account from Robert Wailes,
63, from West Yorkshire, who was sent a series of letters claiming he
owed increasing amounts of tax, culminating in a visit from a debt
collection agency and demands for £15,000.

It later emerged that Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) owed him
£800. He was offered £25 compensation. A spokesman for HMRC said:
"HMRC provides a very good service to its millions of customers. We
constantly monitor our performance across the board and where it
falls below standard we move resources to improve."

She said that the Inland Revenue receives 100 million letters a year
and that any member of staff caught throwing away mail would face
disciplinary proceedings