‘Productivity problem’: Services Australia blasted over $10.6m cost in overtime

Services Australia staff have been blasted for being inefficient after taxpayers forked out a whopping $10.6m in overtime pay for public servants to clear a logjam of claims.

Taxpayers have forked out a massive $10.6m in overtime for public servants to clear a backlog of Services Australia claims, prompting accusations they have “horrible efficiency”.

New figures reveal nine “Super Saturday” events were held last financial year to rid the logjam of Medicare, social welfare and child support entitlements.

More than 2100 staff cashed in on the voluntary events, on average, costing taxpayers about $75 an hour in overtime.

But Government Services Minister Bill Shorten defended the spending, saying the former Coalition government left a “mess” and cut “too many staff”.

“It took our government’s investment in Services Australia and $10.6m in 142,500 hours of overtime to clean up the backlog,” Mr Shorten said.

“It should be noted that the $10.6m cost of overtime hours to clear the claims backlog is about 1/5th of one per cent of the annual operating budget of Services Australia for that year, that is 20 cents in every $100 invested by Services Australia.”

Services Australia is being blasted for having ‘horrible efficiency’. Brenton Edwards

Almost 775,000 claims were processed over the nine “Super Saturday” events.

About three in four were Medicare claims, followed by social welfare and child support.

Mr Shorten said the events were used to manage the backlogs, before an extra 3000 staff were inducted and trained in early 2024.

The reduction means no ‘Super Saturday’ events have been held since February last year.

The number of health claims were slashed from 476,082 at the end of 2022-23 to 146,342 at the end of 2023-24.

During the same period, social security and welfare claims were more than halved to 145,395, and child support claims were reduced by 25,000 to 144,821.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten defended the spending, saying the former Coalition government left a ‘mess’ and cut ‘“too many staff’. Picture: Martin Ollman

But Opposition government services spokesman Michael Sukkar rejected the assertion it was to blame for the backlog, saying Services Australia had a “productivity problem” under Labor.

“Mr Shorten’s decision to pause automation processes, axe over 1000 specialist tech jobs and gut the agency’s technology capabilities have undermined the integrity of Australia social security safety net and deprived the hardworking staff at Services Australia with the tools they need to efficiently get on with their work,” Mr Sukkar said.

“The opposition repeats its call for a root and branch review to be held into the welfare agency to help it get back on track.”

Australian Taxpayers Alliance president Brian Marlow said the overtime showed “horrible efficiency” because public servants were not “grinding 80-hour weeks”.

Mr Marlow said the $10m spend may be considered a drop in the ocean but it was representative of how the bureaucracy, which has also been expanded on taxpayer dollars, was “willing to waste our money”.

“Why couldn’t they get their basic tasks done in their existing hours,” Mr Marlow said, adding corporate Australia regarded these as “cushy jobs”.

Originally published as ‘Productivity problem’: Services Australia blasted over $10.6m cost in overtime