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People's Friend
What did the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report mean for the revenue departments? ALLISON PLAGER reports.
THE 2003-04 ANNUAL report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, published recently, concentrates mostly on matters pertaining to the Department for Work and Pensions. The revenue departments do not escape the Ombudsman's notice, although no great detail is devoted to them this year.
People's Friend
What did the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report mean for the revenue departments? ALLISON PLAGER reports.
THE 2003-04 ANNUAL report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, published recently, concentrates mostly on matters pertaining to the Department for Work and Pensions. The revenue departments do not escape the Ombudsman's notice, although no great detail is devoted to them this year.
Ann Abraham is the Parliamentary Ombudsman, and she acknowledges in her introduction that public departments are under 'unprecedented pressure to improve and modernise'. Much is demanded of them, and they occasionally fail to deliver. In that event, individuals rightly expect their concerns dealt with 'appropriately and promptly', and for the department to learn from its mistakes. But, Ms Abraham says, 'too often … this is simply not the case'.
The Ombudsman was 'particularly disappointed' in 2003-04 to see 'large scale changes in Government services, underpinned by significant information technology projects, introduced yet again, without abiding by the principles of good administration'. She said that lack of planning and piloting resulted in unnecessary stress and hardship for many members of the public, and many of the complaints received this year reflected this. One area which she had in mind was the introduction of the new tax credits.
Facts and figures
New complaints and work in progress dealt with by the Ombudsman amounted to a total of 2,319 cases in 2003-04. The total Inland Revenue casework (221) represented almost ten per cent of the Ombudsman's total workload, second only to the Department of Work and Pensions which had 961 cases.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman's customer service unit became fully operational and dealt with 6,834 telephone, letter and e-mail enquiries. The Ombudsman is keen to resolve complaints by contact with the relevant department, which explains the steady decline in the number of statutory investigations over recent years. In 2003-04, there were 421 positive outcomes achieved by enquiry of the department, while the Ombudsman issued only 84 statutory reports, 4.5 per cent of the workload, compared with 376 in 1997-98, or 18 per cent of the workload. The aim is that a statutory report should take up to 41 weeks, but the actual figure was on average 48 weeks and two days. This, said the Ombudsman, was partly because of the time it took some departments to respond to her enquiries.
Revenue complaints
Individuals may complain to the Ombudsman either as well as, or instead of, to the Adjudicator. However, if they wish to keep both options open, they must complain first to the Adjudicator, since complaints made to the Ombudsman may not subsequently be heard by the Adjudicator.
In 2003-04, the Ombudsman received 186 new complaints against the Revenue, compared with 145 in the previous year, and representing an increase of 30 per cent. A number of these complaints arose from the new tax credits, as might be expected, but other complaints concerned Revenue delays, or insufficiently clear guidance on policy.
With regard to the new tax credits, it was the temporary payments made to cover initial delays and to alleviate hardship, that caused the most distress. Once the award had been settled, often money had to be repaid to the Revenue. In effect, the Revenue was giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Furthermore, automatic adjustment of payments in the year to ensure that the correct annual amount was paid caused 'some dramatic reductions' in the credits in the latter part of the year. More interim payments were made, which alleviated the immediate problem, but only had to be repaid later.
The Ombudsman also found that the interaction between tax credits and benefits confused some people. Claimants did not understand that in claiming tax credits rather than benefits, they could not revert back to benefits.
Investigations into some cases have been launched, and Ms Abraham said she would be examining how the Revenue approached the problem of hardship to families.
The Ombudsman raised concerns with the new tax credits with the acting chairman of the Inland Revenue, Ann Chant. Ms Abraham refers to the delays in starting payments as causing distress to many claimants, and says that the measures put in place locally, while satisfying the immediate problem, led to later difficulties when the amounts were clawed back. She also mentioned that she and the Adjudicator would keep each other updated on the areas which caused particular difficulty.
Customs
Thirty-four complaints were filed in 2003-04 against Customs, four less than in 2002-03. In a case study, the Ombudsman explains how mistakes and omissions on the part of Customs can cause immense difficulties and distress for taxpayers.
The taxpayer, Mrs B, received a letter from Customs enclosing a tax demand for over £1,500 from the Austrian Customs administration. It arrived on Saturday, and she had no idea why she should have received it. Customs failed to investigate the demand properly, resulting in Mrs B having to sort out the problem herself. It took three weeks for the Austrian authority to confirm that she was not the relevant debtor. What had happened was that the Customs' European Community mutual assistance team received a request from the Austrian authority for information about a debtor, Mr X. Through on-line interrogation of the electoral roll, Customs came up with Mrs B's name and address. The officer accepted that Mrs B must be the debtor, despite the fact that she was female and other facts did not match up.
The Ombudsman suggested to Customs that the proffered consolatory payment of £100 was insufficient to cover their failure and Mrs B's distress. The chairman of Customs therefore apologised personally, and increased the payment to £275.
Customs also tightened up internal procedures to prevent similar mistakes happening in future.
The future
Without mentioning any particular department, the Ombudsman said that 'time and again I have seen examples of complaints which would never have come to me if they had been dealt with properly in the first place'. Although noting that it was not a panacea, Ms Abraham hopes that the continuing roll out of the memoranda of understanding with other Government departments will clarify the mutual responsibilities of both her and their offices. However, she also noted that 'there is a clear reluctance among some government departments to accept my findings and recommendations for redress. I will be looking for significant changes in mindset among such Government bodies and, as a result, an improvement in their response in the coming year'. To encourage good administrative practice and change, her office will be developing the issuing of an annual letter to departments where there are significant issues to be addressed.
The Ombudsman can be contacted at the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, tel: 0845 015 4033, e-mail: OPCA.Enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk. The Annual Report 2003-04 costs £14.10 and is available from The Stationery Office. It is also available on the Ombudsman's website, www.ombudsman.org.uk .
