Blaming The Right People For HMRC Failures

Who would want to be a taxman who are on the end of a beasting today for poor service as the Self Assessment  deadline of 31 January looms large on the horizon.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report issued today said that HM Revenue & Customs was: 'Excavating its way to new lows in its customer service every year' and i am sure that anyone who has had to contact the department will agree but rather than give it both barrels to the poor saps in the Office, let's put the blame fairly where it should be, on the heads of the Conservative Government.
Since 2010, when the previous Government took over, they closed 237 Tax Office around the country and the 57,045 Tax Staff who actually do the jobs (Admin Assistants, Admin Officers and Executive Officers) has crashed from 57,045 to 32,218 today meaning there are 24,827 less people capturing Tax Returns, issuing repayments and tax codes and generally doing all that tax stuff we rely on.
It isn't just HM Revenue & Customs who are being asked to do more with less people, across the whole Civil Service numbers plummeted from 480,000 to 380,000 until Brexit and Covid meant that more had to be employed to keep the Government afloat.
Amazingly, in 2024 when they were booted out of office, they were pushing for 90,000 Civil Service jobs to be cut and that is despite an already agonising 3-4 month wait for Passports to be processed, 5-6 month for a Driving Test and up to a year for the Estate of the deceased to be finalised.
So feel free to moan about not getting through on the phone to HM Revenue & Customs this month but remember, there was 24,827 more of them until the Conservatives closed down buildings and made Civil Servants redundant in an ideological zeal so you know who to blame, and it isn't the frazzled poor sod finally picking up the phone to you.