HMRC Launches New Dedicated Bereavement Service Helpline

As an addition to the Government’s “Tell Us Once Service”, where you can register a death and all local and central government departments such as HMRC, the NHS and your Doctor, the Passport Agency, DVLC (driving licences) and local government for council tax are notified of your death, HMRC has just launched a new Bereavement Helpline.

HMRC announced that bereaved customers or their representatives or executors are now able to report a death and settle a deceased’s tax affairs by calling their new dedicated bereavement service helpline on 0300 322 9620.

Using AI, their new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service will direct you to PAYE, Self Assessment, or Child Benefit depending on the service you need. This means customers will get to the right place, first time and be able to talk to someone about several matters during the same call.

Comment

Anything that helps people get to the right service or department more quickly is of course better given the wait/hold times you can have when queuing for only to be told you have not reached the correct department.

We are sceptics though, having dealt with HMRC for over 30 years, we have only seen HMRC’s services deteriorate and even today as we head towards Making Tax Digital there will be even less people working within HMRC and the ‘brain drain’ on HMRC as more experienced staff retire only to be replaced by automated call handling systems and call handlers with little real tax knowledge may actually make things worse in the long term as there will be diminishing work force knowledge.