THE proposed closure of tax centres which would start in the North East risk worsening an already “disgraceful” phone help service, a spending watchdog has warned.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced last week that a pilot scheme would see a total of 13 tax centres close in the region, including Alnwick, Hexham, Durham, Morpeth, Newcastle, Bishop Auckland and Sunderland.

If the trials are successful, all 281 tax inquiry centres will shut next year.

But the Commons public accounts committee has said there is a “real risk” of things actually getting worse with new tax and benefit systems likely to add to the volume of calls while staff numbers were being cut.

The committee welcomed planned improvements, including a call-back system and a move away from expensive 0845 numbers. But it condemned a “woefully inadequate and unambitious” new target to answer 80% of calls within five minutes which it said was way below industry standards.

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the closures would “undoubtedly put even more pressure on phonelines”.

“HMRC considers that it will be able to improve service standards by reducing avoidable contact with customers and using its staff more flexibly,” she said.

“It may need to put in additional resources, though, to avoid the kind of plummeting performance we have seen in the past.

“Just how the department is going to improve standards of customer service, given the prospect of its having fewer staff and receiving a higher volume of calls, is open to question.

“HMRC plans to cut the number of customer-facing staff by a third by 2015.

“At the same time, the stresses associated with introducing the real time information system, universal credit and changes to child benefit are likely to drive up the number of phone calls to the department.”

Mrs Hodge said it was “disgraceful” that taxpayers who had no choice about dealing with HMRC were subjected to unacceptable levels of service when they phoned or wrote. She said: “Officials are beginning to realise that good customer service lies at the heart of any strategy to maximise revenues while cutting costs.

“However, HMRC’s new target of answering 80% of calls within five minutes is woefully inadequate and unambitious.

“The department should set a more demanding target in the short term and a long-term target that is much closer to the industry standard of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds.”

An HMRC spokesman said: “This report criticises a previous poor standard of service from which HMRC has already recovered.

“In the past three months, HMRC has been answering more than 90% of calls to our contact centres and during the current year we have replied to 84.5% of the 16 million pieces of post we have received within 15 working days.

“We are investing an extra £34m in our contact centres to maintain this industry standard level of performance.

“To make it cheaper for customers to call us, we already transferred our tax credits phone lines from 0845 to 0345 numbers, and will begin to move our remaining lines to 03 numbers from April.

“We are also planning to create a new mobile service for taxpayers who need face-to-face help, which is more flexible and affordable than the service we currently provide.

“We will continue to build on these improvements until we deliver the consistent quality of service that our customers are entitled to expect.”

Good customer service lies at the heart of any strategy to maximise revenues