Centrelink wait times grow, again

Centrelink's annual report has revealed that call wait times are on the rise, again. 

People waited an average of 15 minutes and 44 seconds to speak to someone, according to the report. This is up by 35 seconds compared to last year's 15 minutes and 9 seconds. 

And this only represents the average, some lines were much worse than others:

  • those phoning the disability, sickness and carers line faced wait times of 28 minutes and 17 seconds
  • those phoning employment hotlines waited on average 30 minutes and 21 seconds
  • youth and students waited 31 minutes and 15 seconds on average (an increase of almost six minutes). 
 
"I think it's important to make the point that it only represents a 35-second increase on the previous year," Centrelink spokesman Hank Jongen said. "And it is still within our target of 16 minutes."
 
I guess if you can't move forwards you can at least celebrate moving backwards at a slightly slower pace. 
 
55 million calls were also met with an engaged tone. 
 
 
What do you think of the wait times? I would be shocked if I got through in less than half an hour. 

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22 comments

Why is everyone calling Centrelink all the time, most things can be done online these days. Age Pension is definitely part of the Welfare Budget, in fact it's the largest component. It does not depend on how much tax you paid in your working life, that tax was used for services while you were working and your kids were at school etc. Your Age Pension is now directly funded by current tax payers, other wise we wouldn't have deficits. No shame in taking it, just don't pretend you are owed something because of your urears of work, that entitlement menatality is over.

It is usually a mistake they have made and cannot be fixed online.

I don't believe the majority of calls are for that sorry. Too easy to say that. I speak with people all the time and can't beleive they will sit for ages on the phone rather than make the update via online. Then they complain about the phone wait times.

Tried to update real estate income and assets online.  System balked at this and many, many phone calls later have sorted it out.  Centrelink staff have apologised and reassured us that nothing we did was wrong - just a problem with the records on their system.  Now the income and assets are correct on line but the information contained in the letter sent by Centrelink didn't relate to those figures.  Another phone call was necessary and we were advised that the issue was to be referred to their technical section for correction.

None of those many phone calls had a response time in under 45 minutes, even one made at 8.00 am.  That call was finally answered at 8.45 am.  

I think that those in power need to have some test phone calls to see the true wait times.  A word of advice though - if using a cordless or mobile phone, please ensure that the battery is fully charged first.

I wouldn't have thought updating those items could be done online or over the phone anyway and that you would have to go to an office?

I think the problem started back in 2013 when 1200 CentreLink call centre staff were put off. Back then the average wait time was 17 minutes up from 4 minutes. Seems the current government has been reluctant to increase staff numbers?  

Doesn’t centerlink have a user self service portal where you can log on and update your details and upload documents etc 

if not they should 

their systems and processes are probably in need of a good overhaul 

could save them heaps and cut out more staff 

Yes they do have that Raphael,  however, I don't know how long it would take them to get back to you on that -- and nice to be able to talk and ask question face to face or on the phone sometimes

A list of things you can do online

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/centrelink-online-accounts

It is apparent that everyone is pushing some sort of agenda - either entitlement or lack of entitlement.

Regardless of all that -the wait times and lack of service- the attitude towards the caller/client is so disrespectful.

The circumstance of the individual is not known. I would like to think that the naysayers commenting could take a step back and consider that the ones being subjected to this treatment may not have on-line access or capability. The on-line does not allow access at all times and, certainly, does not cover all bases.

The Centrelink offices are not just down the street. Many do not have transport. This is not a simple equation.

My point was that if customers were to do the things that can be done, and they are able to do them, this would free up the phone service a bit more.

 A couple of years ago I retired. I applied to Centrelink for an aged pension.

after 3 months of long waits at the local office, longer waits on the phone, lost documents, errors, and mishaps I finally received my entitlement.

my wife decided to go back to work for 6 months so my entitlements were stopped.

at the end of the 6 months I mistakenly thought that my pension would start up again.

not so. The entire process of application was to be done again. even the paperwork submitted before hand had to be resubmitted because they couldn't find my old records.

5 months later after more mistakes, miscalculations and mishaps on their part I was back to my pension with all backdated funds paid in full.

i kept a record of all phone calls during my negotiations; all 34 of them. None had me on hold for less than 43 minutes. The longest was 46m then put on hold for another 78 m while they transferred me to another department.

i eventually made a complaint and my case was taken to Level 2. Apparently that's the place to go to get things done. 

The first thing the person said when I spoke to level 2 was "I apologies for the unfortunate delay. We have been extremely busy"

My response was lengthy and firm but polite. It amounted to telling the supervisor that I had received more than enough apologies over the past 5 months and I wasn't interested in getting another one. As for being busy, so was I. In spite of being retired I don't sit around on my arse reading the paper and drinking cups of tea. In addition I'd spent a good working day a week over the last 5 months conversing with Centrelink. Perhaps if Centrelink would make less mistakes, loose less documents and provide me with a Mygov link that actually works they might not have been so busy.

it is very fortunate that I have a local office just 5 minutes drive from home full of very helpful locals who are quite understanding of someone who doesn't understand the system fully, has made every effort to comply, and is patient enough to sit on the phone without abusing someone.

that may well be the case but the cat sure got a beating.

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