HMRC Stakeholder Digest – 4 November 2021

4 Nov 2021

Please see the following message which we are sharing on behalf of HMRC:

This HMRC Stakeholder Digest provides a round-up of our latest news and updates, which we’d be grateful if you could share with your clients, customers or members.

The Government has set up a dedicated support page where businesses can find the right support, advice and information to help with the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Publication of HMRC’s Annual Report, Charter and Q2 statistics

Today (4 November) we’ve published our Annual Report and Accounts 2020 to 2021 and our Charter Annual Report 2020 to 2021 – the first since we relaunched the HMRC Charter a year ago.

Despite the economic impact of COVID-19, we collected £608.8 billion in tax revenues in the last financial year – a 4.4% reduction on the previous year but still the third highest total on record, and higher than initial forecasts at the start of the pandemic.

We also supported the UK through its transition out of the EU – keeping customs clearance times within target, introducing a 24/7 support service for urgent border issues, processing around 359,000 declarations through our Northern Ireland Trader Support Service and answering more than 70,000 calls on our customs and international trade helpline.

We did this while supporting 11.5 million jobs through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and 2.7 million individuals through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

Some of the necessary measures we took to support customers through the pandemic had an impact on our performance in replying to customer letters and forms, and on waiting times on some of our helplines. But we also saw record high customer satisfaction with our digital services of 85.2% on average across the financial year and we increased our webchat capability from 1 million chats in 2019 to 2020 to more than 3 million chats in 2020 to 2021. We also successfully delivered our two busiest peaks of work: tax credits renewals in July and Self Assessment returns in January – and we ensured that vital support such as Child Benefit continued uninterrupted.

The pandemic response has continued to be a major priority for us since April 2021 and the COVID-19 support schemes still ran throughout the first six months of this financial year. At the same time, we have seen more of our traditional demand return - so we have worked to balance the need to deliver priority support alongside our core work as society and the economy begin to return to normal.

Our latest performance figures for July to September 2021, published today, show customer service levels on our helplines and postal services beginning to stabilise, but we have further to go to get back to a pre-pandemic position.

We know that our core purpose as the UK’s tax authority is as important as ever – and many of our customers are still facing serious economic challenges. As we look to the future, we are focused on our vision of being a trusted, modern tax and customs department, supporting businesses and individuals to adapt to a changing economy, while continuing to bring in vital tax revenue for our public services.

Working Tax Credit – reporting changes to working hours   

During the pandemic, Working Tax Credit (WTC) customers haven’t needed to tell us about any temporary reductions to their working hours as a result of COVID-19. This was one of several measures we introduced to help those facing uncertainty. 

We're reminding WTC claimants that this measure ended on 30 September 2021 and they have until 25 November to return to working the hours they claim for. Customers can check their current WTC claim details online and on GOV.UK.  

If they don't intend to go back to working enough hours to be entitled to WTC, they must tell HMRC within one month. Customers can check how many hours they need to work on GOV.UK.  

Customers should still continue to tell us about any permanent changes to their circumstances for example if they’re made redundant, lose their job, or their hours change permanently during this time.  

Any changes can be easily reported online on GOV.UK.  

If customers receive tax credits they're not entitled to as a result of a change, they'll need to repay this money and may also have to pay a penalty if they don’t let us know within one month.