Rejected petition Ensure HMRC maintains telephone helplines for Self Assessment, VAT and PAYE

Rejected on 19 April 2024

The Government should ensure that HMRC makes telephone access to help and support for taxpayers available throughout the year. Too many people cannot deal with their queries online and should not have to wait until half the tax year has passed.

HMRC telephone waiting times are increasing, more people are being drawn into tax with tax thresholds frozen, HMRC supposedly wants people to file tax returns early, yet closes the helpline that should be there to help them. The HMRC Charter is a legal requirement under the Finance Act 2009 and says "We’ll provide services that are designed around what you need to do, and are accessible, easy and quick to use, minimising the cost to you." The government needs to ensure HMRC does this.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659220

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.