HMRC hires more than 1,000 temp workers

THE TAXMAN HAS hired more than 1,100 to help chase unpaid tax bills.

HM Revenue & Customs have hired the workers to go back over previous years' tax returns. This is part of a Treasury drive for the department to collect more cash. The workers are being hired until March 2012.

An HMRC spokesman said: "Improving our service to PAYE customers is an HMRC priority for 2011/12. We are recruiting more than 1,000 temporary staff to help us ensure good standards of service to all our customers. This will enable us to restore service standards and work old open cases."

Angela Beech, tax partner at Blick Rothenberg, told the Telegraph: "HMRC are certainly becoming more aggressive. We had a client rung up on Sunday, during lunch, by a worker demanding credit card details for tax he did not owe.

"They really shouldn't be demading credit card details over the phone. And I do worry that the hiring of temporary staff is counter-productive. How well trained will they be? I fear they could be chasing a rainbow."