Update from HMRC on recognised improvements

Workshop Action

Closed Action Update

Stakeholder engagement

We will formalise a ‘suggestions process’ to ensure we receive feedback and share the outcomes and decisions with RBSG.

Sharing the list of activity and progress, is now a standing item on the RBSG agenda.

Service levels transparency

We will be more transparent about how busy our phonelines are and when the peaks are to help customers decide when to get in touch with us.

As part of a trial on several of our lines within personal taxes, if a customer contacts us by phone, they now hear the current estimated wait time, alongside online promotion before their call will be answered.

We will also test publishing typical wait times on GOV.UK – starting with one line to see the impact, as we know over 50% of customers go online before calling a contact centre. With this information, we hope customers may select how to engage depending on urgency.

Initial data on the PAYE helpline suggests that between 2,500 to 4,000 calls per day are being deflected as customers make an informed choice not to wait and are not then calling us back. This suggests they are self-serving.

The impact is less noticeable on business lines.

We will continue to test and expect customer behaviours will differ by line.

Forums

Offer an additional session for stakeholders on the Single Customer Account (SCA), to gather more detailed feedback.

As well as the one-off session in March, we are continuing our engagement through groups including Tax Credit Consultation Forum and the Taxpayers Data Standards Forum. We're also issuing written updates on new features, for example the launch of the new Child Benefit digital service.

Use of promotional language

We will consider our language around new digital services (for example avoid overselling as easy or straightforward) and consider how we refer to new digital services that might still in beta testing – helping balance our risk appetite for releasing Minimal Viable Products.

We are simplifying our customer communications, signposting to online and the HMRC app rather than needing to refer to different services, and increasingly offering QR codes and short URLs to get customers to the right place quicker (for example on the Child Benefit information included in the Bounty Pack for new parents).

In addition, we’re being clear in our communications that digital services as standard will be tested and updated as we go, and we’re encouraging customer feedback to help us do this. Where the customer journey is affected by a customer’s decision (e.g. if you log in to claim child benefit, it means payment is more likely to be made sooner) we’re making this clearer so customers can decide what to do next based on that information.

Charity Tax guidance

We will continue to engage with the Charity Tax Forum to seek their views on how to improve HMRC guidance for charities.

At the re-arranged Charity Tax Forum on 15 May, we heard an update on guidance and external members were invited to share suggestions for simplifying guidance. They were clear that it is important to tailor communications to different audiences and circumstances. We will continue to work with them to ensure that any changes take account of their useful and insightful feedback.

Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Partnerships

Better promote HMRC’s VCS partnership programme, so we can direct customers to this support and reduce the burden on our helplines.

VCS signposting and referrals

We have introduced a GOV.UK page which tells customers how to get help through our valued VCS partner organisations.

We have strengthened referral routes to extra support teams and VSTRS (Voluntary Sector Tax Resolution Service) to ensure customers get the appropriate support. Next steps are to build these VCS referrals into advisor guidance and learning products to ensure that customers are directed to additional support if they need it.

We have run several internal awareness sessions to raise the profile of the partnerships we have with VCS across HMRC.

Grant Funding

We meet with organisations monthly to get insight and resolve areas of risk quickly and effectively and use our social media to amplify the partnerships with organisations.

We have also linked organisations together who would benefit from joint working, for example TaxAid joined forces with Small Business helpline (ALB of Dept of Business and Trade) so that small businesses needing tax support have access to it.

For the 2024-2027 Grant Funding programme we will put more emphasis on asking for their support in moving customers to HMRC online services.

Samaritans

We are piloting a partnership with Samaritans to support HMRC customers who need emotional support. We’ve introduced a dedicated referral route for our extra support advisors to signpost customers.

We’ve also worked with Samaritans to build capability and confidence for extra support advisors who help distressed callers.

VCS Forums

We run three consultation forums with VCS: Individual Stakeholder Forum; Tax Credit Consultation forum and Additional Needs Working Group. Organisations share messaging through their networks to reach difficult to reach customers.

Improved resilience and visibility of digital systems

We will prioritise ensuring that our systems are resilient and that any outages are communicated to customers in a clear and timely manner.

To do this, we will continue our engagement with key stakeholders through existing forums such as the Joint Customs Consultative Committee, as well as Strategic Customer Management teams to ensure changes and issues are visible and feedback and actions are clear including progress on CDS migration for exports and NCTS5 delivery.

The standing item on system issues and updates at JCCC is working well and we will continue to review this and use the feedback provided.

Aligning policy change and digitalisation

We will commit to considering process and policy changes that can be made alongside digitisation rather than seeking to digitise “as is”.

To multiply the benefits of our digital transformation work, Borders & Trade will closely engage with industry over the next 12 months to optimise a number of customs policy and processes.

Following the announcement at Spring Budget, a ‘Modernising Authorisations Task and Finish’ group has been established and we are working closely with key stakeholders to co-design future authorisations packages.

Workshop Action

Action Update

Simplifying forms and guidance

We will:

• continue our work to transform HMRC guidance including engaging with taxpayers and stakeholders on priority improvements
• develop quick help guides/checklists e.g., everything you need at the start of a process to fill out a form and sharing ‘keywords’ with agents to help them navigate our phone system more efficiently
• identify opportunities arising from review of forms and guidance relating to small businesses for improvements.

A systematic review of guidance and forums for small businesses was announced at Spring Budget 2023.

Following the announcement, we began the pre-discovery phase (phase one), where we are gathering and analysing insight both internally and externally from now until July 2023.

In July, we will move into the full discovery phase, and begin work on updating guidance on GOV.UK.

We have also spoken to representative bodies who want to support this work and will continue to work with them.

Education and Comms as compliance tool

We will collaborate more with intermediaries to improve customer education, including:

• identifying options to widen our modes of communication beyond GOV.UK to achieve better coverage. This will include examining how we can leverage the reach of others in the tax system, such as representative bodies, tax agents and other stakeholders. From Q1 2023-24
• working closer with external bodies that small businesses engage with to better join up and sign-post services, such as Banks and Companies House, and pre-empt early notification of future tax/other obligations, particularly at registration stages. Engagement beginning in Q1 2023-24.

We are continuing to work with designated intermediaries on a test and learn proposal to provide tailored educational support material to help small businesses in the Hot Food sector.

Work has started to share information about landlords’ tax obligations through companies who specialise in providing accommodation for sporting events. For example, we sent over 6000 targeted emails via rental partnerships to those renting in Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games.

We are also working with the Influencer Marketing Trade Body on a test and learn proposal to support people working in the creator economy.

We are working with banks and other financial institutions to build on the SA messages (particularly around paying) that they share with customers through their own channels.

Forum / external engagement review

As part of work to embed simplification following the closure of the Office of Tax Simplification, we will review external engagement structures and processes to ensure HMRC teams benefit from external views on tax admin and maintenance challenges as early as possible in the policy making process.

We will:

• map the Forum landscape across HMRC engagement forum landscape, highlighting purpose and hierarchy, and share this with stakeholders
• engage with stakeholder forums and external groups on horizon scanning to consider what future external trends the tax system will need to respond to and the strategy for how taxpayers should interact with the tax system over the longer-term.

We have remapped the forum landscape and have shared this with RBSG. We are doing further work to review the various forums and will engage further with RBSG on this.

Workshop Action

Action Update

Improved agent dashboard

We will review the dashboard based on feedback to ensure it is clear about the current position and regularity of update and check it provides the information agents need.

We have updated GOV.UK to state that the dashboard is updated weekly and are updating it further to be clear that a reply may take longer if we need to get extra information. 

Consistent references

We will make more consistent use of agent reference detail on letters – making it easier and quicker for agents to support customers.

Our digital teams reviewed how we would do this and their analysis suggests that the issue lies primarily with the auto acknowledgements in the PAYE and Self Assessment services. They are now considering options to make the necessary changes and we will update RBSG. 

Workshop Action

Action Update

OGD collaboration

We will establish collaboration with other Government Departments to focus on helping small businesses to be compliant, ensuring where business links exist that relevant information is readily accessible. This includes better joining up services across Government like tax, benefit system, pensions, etc.

We are partnering with the Department for Business & Trade, exploring the creation of new educational support for start-ups using data/insight from their SME Helpline and HMRC insight. This will better support new and existing businesses to address customer admin burden and growth whilst also tackling Failure to Take Reasonable Care (FTRC) and error. Discussions are ongoing, but the product will consider SR23 commitments to simplify guidance, and we will consult with the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board (ABAB) at the right stage.

Engagement plan

We will engage with partners such as Administrative Burdens Advisory Board, Federation of Small Businesses, Confederation of British Industry, agents and representative bodies to better support small businesses to be compliant whilst reducing their administrative burdens and also reducing the tax gap.

We’ve had further conversations with external bodies, including software developers, to discuss issues they have identified hindering small business growth. We are exploring these issues with our digital teams and others to co-create and deliver solutions to reduce administrative burdens.

We met with ABAB in May to explore opportunities across their 23/24 work programme to co-design and deliver against FST’s Simplification agenda. We will be discussing these further at our next meeting in July.

Workshop Action

Action Update

Working-level collaboration

We will work with software developers on software solutions to enable co-development of efficient and easy to use systems.

We have reviewed how we engage with software developers to work through the more complex elements of Making Tax Digital design and respond to the feedback received from the industry, including monthly ‘co-creation sessions’. Feedback on this approach so far has been positive.

Digital customer journey

Systems should be intuitive so that guidance isn’t needed or is only needed for complex cases.

All new features for the Single Customer Account are tested with end users to ensure they are intuitive. The new Child Benefit service was tested with users and presented at external forums with groups who represent customers. Feedback is being used for future improvements, with current customer satisfaction rates above 90%.

HMRC Charter

To review how HMRC can embed tax simplification into our Charter.

Following the closure of the Office of Tax Simplification in 2022, the FST has announced the Government’s intention to develop a more comprehensive set of metrics to measure progress on simplification and improving the customer experience [Hansard].

We have held a number of discussion sessions with representative bodies (ABAB, FSB, CBI and LITRG) to obtain their views on measuring simplification. We will be consulting further to play back the metrics identified and how these align with tax simplification objectives and to ensure that measures reflect the real-world experience of taxpayers.

Forward look / roadmap

Share a roadmap of digital services coming in 2023-24.

HMRC are producing a digital services timeline to share with stakeholders. We’ll provide more information about this in our next update.

ChatGPT

Understand the potential of ChatGPT for HMRC and its customers.

In line with the government’s Transforming for a Digital Future roadmap, HMRC is considering the implications and applications of promising emerging technologies.

Building on strong experience in data science and machine learning applications for compliance and customer service, we’re in the process of identifying the wide range of business processes, IT platforms and channels, where generative AI may have an impact, with the aim of creating a coordinated response.

We plan to engage external stakeholders, to identify ways in which we can work in partnership, to harness the power of this rapidly evolving technology, in order to plan and prepare for the future, and to meet the ambitions set out in our Tax Administration Strategy on GOV.UK.

Tax obligation

To integrate tax obligations and expectations outside of the tax system (e.g. if you sell a house should this trigger a Capital Gains Tax warning, if you start trading on eBay should this trigger a business warning).

We are building partnerships where we can share tax touchpoints for customers – for example:

• we’re working with recruitment companies to help their clients get the information they need when they start a new job, such as National Insurance numbers, quickly and easily using their online tax account.
• we partnered with short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Expedia to ensure people letting their property for the first time are aware of their obligations.

Workshop Action

Action Update

Communication of roadmaps

Stakeholders expressed the need for honest, transparent communication, with a roadmap of top priorities for the year for intermediaries.

We are developing a product which will be shared with RBSG members before the end of July.

Consult prior to decision making

Later this summer, we will be holding several discussions with trusted stakeholders to provide an update on current work. These discussions follow workshops held with stakeholders last year. We intend to share invites for the discussions in the next few weeks.

Working together pre-forum

Stakeholders suggested they could collaborate more closely, for example, co-ordinating views and insight prior to attending forums and meetings. This would ensure HMRC receive and respond to clear steers based on views from across intermediary sectors.

There has been no further progress on this piece of work. However, one of the early upcoming actions will be identifying the stakeholders interested in the suggestion made at the conference.

Bad actors

Trusted Collaborative Stakeholder Discussions on IT Strategy Intermediaries stated that HMRC should separate the good actors from the bad actors and create a safe environment for HMRC to talk to the good actors, to work together to deliver outcomes and build trust.

HMRC has been working closely with external and internal stakeholders to develop a strategic software forum bringing together colleagues from across HMRC, government and the tax software community. Detailed background preparation and market testing is now almost complete, and invitations will be issued shortly for a launch event towards the end of June.

Workshop Action

Action Update

Roadmap

We will provide greater visibility of upcoming changes across the customs landscape in one place (with a focus on systems changes) through the use of a multi-year roadmap.

The draft Border Target Operating Model was published on 5 April and an intensive period of engagement has taken place with key stakeholders, with HMRC working with colleagues across government to attend and facilitate these. The final Border Target Operating Model will be published shortly and will outline a clear roadmap of changes and deadlines for our customers.

Technology and process improvements

Stakeholders had multiple ideas on how we can use technology or process change to improve the customs system. These included:

• voluntary licencing of intermediaries
• reducing the volume of data we ask for and exploring easier means to get that data to HMRC
• introducing more initiatives at the border for trusted trade.

While many of these ideas are already being considered, we cannot commit to delivering any new policy or technological change to a definitive timeframe (beyond what will be outlined in the Target Operating Model) while HMRC costs and delivery capacity is under review.

We continue to explore these areas in consultations. We cannot commit to them, but we are open to inviting comment and having conversations about how this could work in practice.