Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on (a) customers and (b) helpline call levels of closing the self assessment help lines between 12 June and 4 September 2023.

This question was answered on 17th July 2023
This quarter is the quietest for Self-Assessment (SA) queries. HMRC is piloting the temporary and time-limited closure of the SA helpline so that c.350 advisers can be moved to other helplines which experience heavier demand at this time of year.

The SA helpline will reopen on 4 September, five months prior to the SA filing deadline of 31 January.

Around two-thirds of all Self-Assessment calls can be resolved online by customers; piloting a seasonal Self-Assessment helpline is about positively encouraging people to use these services when they can.

This will free up HMRC advisors to help those with more urgent queries or who cannot access digital services, and to work on correspondence.

It is very early in the trial, but already more people are using HMRCs digital services while HMRCs advisors are doing more work elsewhere. HMRC have increased the number of advisors on webchat, where the wait time is about a third of what it was on the Self-Assessment Helpline.