optimark_prime wrote:

If it weren’t for someone pointing it out, I’d have missed it, lol.

HM Revenue & Customs will permanently close its self-assessment helpline for half the year, leaving some taxpayers unable to speak to the tax authority on the phone.

The phone line will be closed between April and September each year and open only to taxpayers with “priority queries” between October and March. All other callers will be directed to HMRC’s web services — an unpopular alternative with some professionals and the public, especially those who struggle online.

It follows a series of trials by the taxman last year in which it closed or restricted its self-assessment helpline as it struggled to cope with a mounting workload. It was criticised for giving only two working days’ notice of the closure last summer.
HMRC said that last year’s seasonal trial had been successful and that taxpayers unable to access its online services could speak with their extra support teams throughout the year.

Government plans for asylum accommodation, like the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, will cost tens of millions of pounds more than using hotels, with flagship sites housing hundreds fewer migrants than planned, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the Home Office expects to spend £1.2 billion on housing asylum seekers in large accommodation sites and latest estimates suggest they will cost £46 million more than using hotels.

By the end of March, the department expects to have spent at least £230 million developing four major projects – the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, the former RAF bases at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex, and ex-student accommodation in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.