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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

National insurance statement request

etf
Posts:1278
Joined:Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:25 pm
National insurance statement request

Postby etf » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:52 am

A client who lives overseas requested a statement of his national insurance record from HMRC and asked me to chase his application. Having waited 11 1/2 minutes for someone to answer the phone, I was advised that the current turnaround on such applications is 10 weeks . This apparently is an improvement on previous waiting times which have been as long as 14 weeks.

If you live in the UK you only have to wait 15 working days for a reply to be generated.

HMRC’s published statistics (2017) show that it is meeting its target of clearing 80% of post within 15 working days and 95% within 40 working days.

SteLacca
Posts:448
Joined:Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:17 pm

Re: National insurance statement request

Postby SteLacca » Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:59 am

HMRCs published performance metrics are a complete fabrication. They also claim that they answer over 80% of calls in under 4 minutes. They rarely answer in under 12, but they count abandoned calls as answered within target, thus skewing the results.

I rarely believe a word HMRC say. Remember when they said that RTI would increase accuracy, when the reality is that it causes more problems than it ever solved, or that MTD would be loved by all taxpayers, when the reality is the majority don;t even know about it, or that penalties were not used to gather revenue, just before they introduced the sometimes draconian penalty regime that we currently have.

Or when they tell you on their website that all director's MUST complete a tax return, when this is so far away from what the legislation says it's untrue. (In fact, there is nothing at all about being a director that would compel anyone to have to complete a Return).

etf
Posts:1278
Joined:Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:25 pm

Re: National insurance statement request

Postby etf » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:50 am

If I received a pound each time I've been advised you can't initiate a complaint on the telephone (incorrect) I'd be a rich man. This presumably affects the number of complaints HMRC record because people lose the will to live and give up.

It must be a tough job for HMRC's troops who have to convey the delay message to the public. The guy I spoke to yesterday knew the delay time frames like his 2 X table so I suspect I wasn't the first to chase and clog up the system even further.

The system didn't work very well in 1984 with 50% of the first year of my working life spent calling/issuing written reminders to HMRC. The difference in those days is you could pin down an issue to a particular office/individual so you didn't have to repeat the same story to five different people. I often wonder whether the management consultants who dream up these "improved systems" factor in the time everyone wastes in achieving an end goal.


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