HMRC tax phone line reform needed, says Gideon Amos MP

Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, is calling for a dedicated hotline for pensioners after figures revealed that more than 80m calls to HMRC went unanswered over the past 10 years.

He said: "HMRC expects tax to be paid not only on time but nowadays even in advance of when it is due, yet it can’t even answer the phone to those who pay it.

"Why shouldn’t they be expected to pick up like other organisations do?

"It is simply not acceptable that so many people in Taunton and Wellington and across the country can’t get through – whether they are one of the two million extra pensioners dragged into paying tax by the Conservatives’ decision to freeze personal allowances, or a small business hit so hard recently by higher business rates, wage bills and employer National Insurance contributions.

"The failure to answer the phone at HMRC has been ignored by both Conservative and Labour governments – we’re all still hanging on for someone to pick up the call for action.

"It really is time this poor service was addressed, and I’d like to see a hotline for retirees, so they get the help they need in a timely fashion, given the worry and stress tax bills often cause."

Research from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by Liberal Democrat trade and investment spokesperson Joshua Reynolds MP, found that one in five calls to HMRC have gone unanswered in the last decade.

In 2024-25 alone, more than six million calls were missed - an average of 17,000 people a day left without support.

The Liberal Democrats warn that with the state pension now just £22 away from the Income Tax threshold, thousands more pensioners could soon be paying tax for the first time.

The party argues that a pensioner hotline is urgently needed, especially for those less comfortable with online systems.

In 2024-25, the average HMRC call waiting time was 18 minutes and 38 seconds - the second-longest in a decade.

In some years, the pickup rate dropped to just 72 per cent, meaning nearly a third of callers never got through.