HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will no longer handle phone or webchat requests for self-assessment refunds due to a rise in “suspected fraudulent activity”.
Anyone who is eligible for a self-assessment refund has been instructed to file a request for overpaid returns online or by mail.
Those who contact HMRC using a phone to request self-assessment repayments have been told: “Please note, this line is only for ordering forms and leaflets. If you have a question or need advice about self-assessment, our advisers won’t be able to help you. Instead, you’ll need to ring the self-assessment helpline or you can find lots of help and information online.
“If you’re calling to claim self-assessment repayment, you should do this online. Please note, our advisers are unable to do this over the phone.”
Where there has been an increase in “suspected fraudulent activity”, the tax collector stated that its systems were still “secure”.
An HMRC spokesman said in a statement: “We’ve paused taking new self-assessment repayment requests over the telephone or via webchat in response to an increase in suspected fraudulent activity, but our systems remain secure. The vast majority of repayment claims are done online and people can continue to claim refunds via their online tax account as normal, or they can submit claims via post.”
The recent decision comes amid heavy criticism of HMRC’s customer support, with taxpayers complaining that a third of their calls go unanswered and letters can take up to nine months to receive a reply.
While raising the interest rate on late payments, data from January showed that the tax collector was only returning half of the calls it had been 10 years ago.
According to a review released earlier this year, HMRC was only returning two-thirds of calls, and calls that were on wait for longer than 70 minutes were immediately disconnected.
Earlier this year, HMRC denied running a “deliberately poor” phone service. The department’s chief executive Jim Harra told the BBC that comments about its customer service were “completely baseless”.
He said: “We've made huge improvements to our service standards, with call wait times down by 17 minutes since April last year.”
Following criticism from former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, HMRC was forced to reverse its decision in 2024 to shut down its phone lines for six months of the year.
Taxpayers can now submit their self-assessments for the 2024-2025 tax year, which ended on Saturday, April 5.
