{
  "id": 3529943,
  "title": "Reform to slash HMRC officials’ pay if taxpayers wait too long",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/reform-to-slash-hmrc-officials-pay-if-taxpayers-wait-too-long",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-26T14:49:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "City AM",
    "slug": "city-am",
    "url": "https://www.cityam.com/reform-to-slash-hmrc-officials-pay-if-taxpayers-wait-too-long/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Under a Reform UK government, officials at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) would face fines and dismissal if they fail to address government services promptly. The Reform policy involves tying the pay of customer service officers at HMRC to performance metrics, with waiting times required to stay under 30 minutes. This initiative aims to benefit small business owners, with taxpayers receiving a £30 tax credit at year-end if they had to wait over 30 minutes on the phone to HMRC. The party claims that 50,000 calls were terminated by HMRC without assistance being delivered when call times exceeded 70 minutes, resulting in a loss of 14 million hours of taxpayers' time, costing the UK economy an estimated £275 million in lost productivity. Reform has previously introduced measures to reduce regulatory burdens for small businesses, such as replacing GDPR with a lighter data protection regime and raising the VAT threshold to £150,000. However, the party has faced conflict with large UK businesses over migration control issues, with criticisms directed at companies like Serco, Deliveroo, and Vodafone for employing illegal workers and providing them with asylum hotels, work permits, and sim cards. Reform's Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, emphasized that the party does not support \"crony capitalism\" and expects companies to face \"life very tough\" under a Reform government if they employ illegal workers. The party will host its first business day at its conference in Birmingham, aiming to engage with industry leaders.",
  "summary": "HMRC officials would be fined and dismissed if they keep taxpayers waiting too long to deal with government services under a Reform UK government. If Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister, customer services officers at the tax collector would have their pay tied to performance levels and be required to keep waiting times to below 30 [...]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}