Tens of thousands of Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff have walked out on strike over plans to cut 10,000 jobs from the organisation by 2014/15.

The Public and Commercial Services union said that about 75 per cent of its 55,000 HMRC members went out on strike across the UK in more than 100 offices.

The latest job cuts are in addition to the 30,000 posts that have gone since the department was formed in 2005, the PCS said. It also highlighted a select committee report in May that said job cuts had prevented HMRC from collecting an additional £1.1billion in tax.

At the time Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge said: "The department must consider whether further staff cuts will deliver value for money for the taxpayer."

Commenting on the walkout, Mark Serwotka PCS general secretary said: "It is hugely significant that this strike is taking place on the day the prime minister is threatening more welfare cuts, because it shows his government prefers to target people on benefits instead of going after the tax dodgers.

"The case for investment instead of more cuts, as an alternative to austerity, could not be clearer than in HMRC where the money we collect funds all the other public services that we all rely on, and provides support to people when they need it."

In a statement made before the strike started, HMRC said: "We are disappointed with the decision to strike and will do everything we can to maintain services to the public. We are seeking dialogue with the PCS to address their concerns and will work to minimise any disruption to our customers.

"In our 2010 spending review the government made £917 million available to us to tackle avoidance, evasion and fraud. This is being used to increase our tax take from compliance work by £7 billion a year in 2014/15, which we are on target to do. Last year alone we increased the yield from our compliance work to £13.9bn."

An HMRC employee survey last year revealed the extent to which organisational change was creating low staff morale. It revealed that employees’ perception of change at HMRC was mostly negative. Only 18 per cent of employees felt that the organisation was managed well, only 17 per cent had confidence in senior management decisions, and 13 per cent agreed that changes were usually for the better.

The survey also showed that staff were dissatisfied with their own pay, benefits and treatment.
More than 38,000 workers responded to the annual autumn 2011 people survey giving a 52 per cent response rate.