Older Australians ‘on hold’
Older Australians are reportedly waiting an average of 21 minutes for their Centrelink enquiries to be heard on the phone. The Australian reports that in May this year for selected Centrelink services child-support clients were waiting an average 62 seconds, Medicare clients 32 seconds and carer and disability clients 19.5 minutes.
Man talking on phone
Older Australians are reportedly waiting an average of 21 minutes for their Centrelink enquiries to be heard on the phone.
The Australian reports that in May this year for selected Centrelink services child-support clients were waiting an average 62 seconds, Medicare clients 32 seconds and carer and disability clients 19.5 minutes.
Human Services Minister, Kim Carr, has now asked the department to redeploy staff to address the issue.
Senator Carr last week said everyone should receive the “highest level of service the commonwealth can provide”.
“Call waiting times across the board have increased due to increased demand and changes in economic conditions,” he said.
“These changes have affected some groups more than others. For example, more older Australians are continuing to work, meaning an increase in calls to the Older Australians line.”
In addition to securing 600 callcentre jobs with an additional $206 million in the last budget, and putting on an 720 extra positions since March, Senator Carr said he had asked the department to redeploy staff to callcentre activities to meet increased waiting times and peak demand across all operations.
The government reportedly says longer waiting times for certain phone lines generally reflect the complexity of the types of payments.
It says the Disability and Carers line is one of the busiest simply because the application process is very involved, often requiring longer discussions with staff.
The way older Australians dealt with the department had also changed dramatically with more people choosing to supplement their pensions with parttime work, meaning that they needed to regularly report their earnings.
