CALLS have been made for a tax hotline for pensioners by the MP for Taunton and Wellington.

MP Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrats) hopes that a hotline would give pensioners a direct route to HMRC support, especially for those less comfortable using online systems.

This comes after research conducted by the House of Commons Library indicated that more than 80 million calls to HMRC have gone unanswered in the last decade.

The data suggests that, in 2024-25, the average HMRC call waiting time was 18 minutes and 38 seconds, the second-longest in the past decade. In some years, pickup rates fell as low as 72 per cent.

Furthermore, shows that one in five calls to HMRC went unanswered in the last decade, and that over six million calls went unanswered.

The research was commissioned by the Liberal Democrats’ trade and investment spokesperson MP Joshua Reynolds.

MP Gideon Amos said: “HMRC expects tax to be paid not only on time but nowadays even in advance of when it is due, yet it can’t even answer the phone to those who pay it.“Why shouldn’t they be expected to pick up like other organisations do?

“It is simply not acceptable that so many people in Taunton and Wellington and across the country can’t get through – whether they are one of the two million extra pensioners dragged into paying tax by the Conservatives’ decision to freeze personal allowances, or a small business hit so hard recently by higher business rates, wage bills and employer National Insurance contributions.

“It really is time this poor service was addressed, and I’d like to see a hotline for retirees, so they get the help they need in a timely fashion, given the worry and stress tax bills often cause.”