Year Of Complaints

NOT AS ACCESSIBLE as it should be. This was how Dame Barbara Mills DBE QC the current Adjudicator described the Inland Revenue's complaints system in her 2004 annual report. She began by saying that there had been 'an improvement across the Inland Revenue as a whole' with the proportion of complaints upheld decreasing from 45 per cent to 35 per cent but in particular with regard to tax credits she was concerned that it was not also clear to individuals how to complain if they wished to.

This is the eleventh report since the establishment of the Adjudicator's Office in 1993 and the fifth from Dame Barbara. This year the office undertook for investigation 511 complaints and completed 475. The team took on 3 955 assistance cases i.e. where the organisation had not been able to consider the complaint...