Citizens Advice have rated HMRC the worst organisation for debt collection in its league table of debt recovery best practice.
The league table title ‘The State of Debt Collection’ measures how well organisations compare in their debt recovery practices including how they make themselves available for enquiries and overall treatment of people who find themselves indebted.
HMRC were found to not only be inflexible in the way they set about proceedings but also in setting affordable payments. Collection of overpaid tax credits was an area of particular concern, where only 12% of Citizens Advice advisors thought that payments were affordable for those affected.
To put this in perspective, debt collection agencies and banks were seen to have provided affordable repayment options by 51% Of Citizen Advice advisors.
The biggest complaints about HMRC services relate to the difficulties being faced by people when they tried to contact various departments with a large proportion unable to get through to speak to anyone regarding their debts.
With communication being such an important area of the debt recovery process, this will not only have an effect on how the organisation is perceived by individuals, it may also prevent some people settling what they owe if they are unsure about what is owed, or if they need to query their bills.