Britons have been left waiting more than 20 minutes before they can speak to an advisor from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The average phone line wait time hit nearly 23 minutes in the first 11 months of 2023/24, up from five minutes in 2018-19, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report on the tax collector’s customer service. In 2022/23, Britons cumulatively spent 798 years on hold waiting to speak to HMRC, more than double the time spent in 2019/20. As the call load remains high, HMRC has not been able to go ahead with the staff reductions it had initially planned. Due to budgetar…