Key targets missed as Centrelink wait times for callers blow out: report
The latest annual report for the agency handling services like Centrelink and Medicare shows the length of time you’re waiting on the phone has blown out.
NSW
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The number of Australians being left waiting for longer than 15 minutes when calling up for key services like Centrelink and Medicare has soared over the last year, with key targets being missed despite an Albanese Government hiring spree aimed at fixing the issue.
New figures from Services Australia’s annual report show the number of phone calls to government agencies answered within 15 minutes dropped to just 55.2 per cent in the 2023-2024 financial year, a decline from 60.8 per cent in 2022-2023 and 68.4 per cent in 2021-2022.
That’s despite the Albanese Government announcing at the start of 2024 an extra 3000 staff had been hired to address caller wait times and backlogs.
Outgoing Coalition spokesman for Government Services Paul Fletcher called for a review following the latest annual report.
“Services Australia is meant to be the front door to government, and that door is increasingly being slammed shut. (Minister for government services) Bill Shorten should be making life easier for customers and he’s done a terrible job at that,” Mr Fletcher said.
“There needs to be a root and branch review of Services Australia to help improve the agency’s performance.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Shorten, who will also leave politics at the election, claimed Mr Fletcher was “once again using outdated data to spread fake news and scare Australians”.
“Paul Fletcher is using his under-appreciated creative writing skills as a wannabe fiction writer,” she said.
Services Australia’s annual report also shows the department missed its own target of more than 70 per cent of callers being served within 15 minutes in 2023-2024, with just 55.2 per cent being served within that time.
That target was also missed in 2022-2023, despite the goal being dropped from the 2021-2022 target, which had set a benchmark of more than 80 per cent of calls being answered within 15 minutes.
Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said waiting times had improved in recent months following the 3000 extra staff being hired, saying over 2024 “the agency’s average speed of answer dropped 21 per cent from around 19 minutes to just over 15 minutes”.
“The agency manages around one million phone contacts a week and staff are working hard to answer calls,” Mr Jongen said, adding that response times were boosted in 2021-2022 when the numbers of government workers answering phones were temporarily increased.
“As the agency returned to baseline funding, it became clear that our supply of staff wasn’t meeting demand … With the increase of staffing, more officers were available to answer the phones, improving call wait times and reducing our need to use congestion messaging,” he said.
Cutting down on waiting times is labelled as one of the key “strategic performance measures” in Services Australia’s annual report.
That report’s small print states the target was dropped from 80 per cent of calls being answered within 15 minutes to 70 per cent in 2022-2023 in a bid to set a “more realistic target capable of showing year-on-year improvement”.
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