Yahoo Finance Centrelink bottleneck forces single mum to couch surf: ‘Not good enough’
Kristen is one of millions of Aussies struggling to get through to Centrelink.
A single mum has been forced to couch surf because a blowout in Centrelink call wait times has left her unable to access assistance from the government agency.
Recently separated mum of two Kristen Pfitzner said she had been left frustrated trying to get through to a Centrelink operator.
“I need a single-parent income and I need that to be able to apply for a house,” the Brisbane resident told 7NEWS. “It’s not good enough.”
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Kristen said she was one of many people struggling to get through to an operator and said trying to call Services Australia had become pointless. The average wait time has blown out to 33 minutes, but many Aussies are not even able to reach an operator in the first place.
More than 7.4 million calls made to Services Australia were sent to voicemail last year, documents released this week in Senate Estimates revealed. More than 2 million calls were terminated by customers who gave up trying.
The average phone wait time for people trying to access employment services is currently 48 minutes, while people like Kristen - who are calling to inquire about family or parenting payments - are waiting the longest, with an average time of 52 minutes.
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Services Australia deputy chief executive officer Jarrod Howard apologised for the long call wait times and said the agency was “working hard” to answer as many calls as it could.
“I acknowledge and I apologise to any customer who is struggling to get through to us,” Howard said. “There is not a person in the agency that does not want to serve customers.”
Howard said call wait times should be eased by March, when more of the 3,000 new staff, hired at the end of 2023, would be fully trained.
The Services Australia data also revealed the extent of the claims backlog, with the number yet to be processed hitting 1.1 million as of December 31.
Those applying for the low-income card face the biggest processing wait times, with Services Australia taking 82 days, on average, to process claims in the last quarter of 2023.
The average number of days to process the age pension went up to 78, while the average approval time for the JobSeeker payment was 27 days. The Parenting Payment Partnered was taking 61 days, while the Parenting Payment Single was 13 days.
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