Taxman grilled as callers to HMRC helpline wait 5 MILLION hours to be put through

CALLERS to a tax helpline were kept on hold so long it became the UK’s second most streamed piece of music in 2015-16.

HMRC chiefs were rapped yesterday after customers waited for nearly five million hours.

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They were questioned over the “appalling” service by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee.

Chair Meg Hillier said they received more complaints about the Revenue than any other issue.

MP Caroline Flint asked why some callers were kept waiting for more than an hour.

She told HMRC customer service boss Ruth Owen: “We had a discussion on what should be on the playlist, Things Can Only Get Better, Should I Stay or Should I Go, Don’t Leave Me This Way or Hanging on the Telephone.”

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An embarrassed Ms Owen said: “The serious point is we don’t want people to listen to more than a couple of minutes from now on.

“What we have been doing for the last year is significantly improving the customer experience.

"Not only did we know customers were criticising us but we did actually change the music.”

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MPs also heard how bosses sacked 5,500 ­officials and then had to recruit 2,400 inexperienced call handlers.

HMRC boss Jon Thompson vowed they’d “do better”.

He said there had been a “dramatic recovery” and the average call was now answered within six minutes.

We had a discussion on what should be on the playlist, Things Can Only Get Better, Should I Stay or Should I Go, Don’t Leave Me This Way or Hanging on the Telephone

Caroline Flint MP

The grilling follows a damning report from the public spending watchdog the National Audit Office last month.

It found customer service levels had “collapsed” following the mass sackings and warned it could have left more than three million people paying the wrong amount of tax.

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HMRC chiefs also confirmed they had 700 "leads" as a result of the Panama Papers probe but wouldn’t report back to the Government until the end of the year.

But they said their investigations were hampered as news outlets like The Guardian had refused to hand over data to them.

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