Brisbane woman on hold to Centrelink for 15 hours

A QUEENSLAND mother was on hold to Centrelink for 15 hours after 30 calls were met with a busy signal. She has proof of the nightmare, which makes the government’s response even more surprising.

A MOTHER has waited for 15 hours to get through to Centrelink staff as the service experiences a blowout in demand.

Desperate parents calling the family line to make changes to family, childcare and parenting payments are being met with a busy tone and given no chance to use online or in-office services instead.

Redcliffe woman Sandra Kajewski was on hold for more than 15 hours on Monday in a marathon effort to get through to a person.

Ms Kajewski, who provided the Herald Sun with a screen snap of her 15-and-a-half-hour wait, said 30 calls she made on Monday were met with a busy tone until she finally got put on hold about 4pm.

She said she was still on hold at 8pm, when the office closes, and so decided to continue the call so she could be first in line on Tuesday.

“Then when I did actually get them on the line, they said that their system was down so they couldn’t even answer me after 15 hours of me being on hold,” Ms Kajewski said.

“The woman was very nice, she said ‘I’m so sorry, ring back later’ and I just laughed.”

Ms Kajewski, who needs to update her son’s information as he moves from daycare into school and can’t use online or in-office services to do so, said she was trying to do the right thing but Centrelink wouldn’t let her.

A screen shot of Sandra Kajewski’s phone after her marathon call to Centrelink.

“I’m a single mum, but I’m a fulltime worker, I don’t have a whole lot of time to spend on the line either, so 15 hours is ridiculous,” she said.

Human Services Minister Stuart Robert acknowledged wait times were longer than normal at the moment but said the suggestion Ms Kajewski was on hold for 15 hours “is simply not correct”.

“In this case, the customer was fully aware that the call would not be answered overnight and has made a conscious decision to stay on the line,” he said.

“The average call wait time for this financial year is 14 minutes and 51 seconds, however I acknowledge it can be longer for some people during peak times like this.”

Mr Robert said early January was traditionally a busy time due to a backlog from the Christmas break and as people changed school and study payments.

“The Department usually handles around 220,000 calls a day, and there is almost an extra week’s worth of calls that are taken during this period as people return from their holidays,” he said.

Mr Robert said major work was underway to update the department’s 30-year-old ICT infrastructure, which would improve services in the future.