Reform to slash HMRC officials’ pay if taxpayers wait too long
HMRC officials would be fined and dismissed if they keep taxpayers waiting too long to deal with government services under a Reform UK government.
If Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister, customer services officers at the tax collector would have their pay tied to performance levels and be required to keep waiting times to below 30 minutes as part of a new Reform policy designed to help small business owners.
The party said that taxpayers and those running businesses would get a £30 tax credit at the end of the year if they waited for over 30 minutes on the phone to HMRC – which is one of the biggest employers in the public sector with 70,000 staff.
The party’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said the policy pushing tax officials to improve performance levels would “restore basic fairness” in the overall system.
The party cited research suggesting that 50,000 calls were ended by HMRC without help being delivered to taxpayers as call times exceeded 70 minutes.
Officials also pointed to employment figures suggesting a loss of 14m hours of taxpayers’ time on HMRC lines had cost the UK economy around £275m in lost productivity.
HMRC crackdown and ‘crony capitalism’
A heap of policies aimed at easing regulatory costs for small businesses have been rolled out by Reform in recent months, including the replacement of GDPR with a more “light-touch” personal data protection regime and raising the VAT threshold to £150,000.
But senior party figures have recently come into a collision course with large UK businesses over migration controls.
Zia Yusuf, the home affairs spokesman, has hit out at Serco, Deliveroo and Vodafone over asylum hotels, illegal migrants’ work and sim cards being given to people who crossed the Channel on small boats.
On Wednesday, Jenrick doubled down on criticism of larger companies that “exploit the taxpayer”.
He said the party did not believe in “crony capitalism” when he was asked whether larger businesses would be targeted, adding companies would find “life very tough under a Reform government” if they employ illegal workers.
He also backed the party’s pledge to crack down on poor performance at HMRC, saying: “We’re just asking them to do their jobs.”
The party will hold its party conference on the first weekend of September in Birmingham, where it will hold its first ever designated “business day” to engage with industry chiefs.
Jenrick promised that it would be the “most impressive business day” hosted by any political party at upcoming conferences.