Centrelink wait times for claims blow out for third year in a row, as agency says it’s getting better

Centrelink wait times for claims have blown out for a third consecutive year, with the most vulnerable Australians impacted the most. Search table to compare times by local government area.

Centrelink in Adelaide. Picture: NewsWire/Mark Brake

Waiting times for Centrelink claims have worsened for the third year in a row, with 1.3 million claims taking longer than they should, new data reveals.

Of the 3,487,008 claims received in the financial year 2023-2024, more than a third – or 1,321,097 – didn’t meet Services Australia’s own ‘timeliness standards’ targets, despite the hiring of thousands of new staff.

The biggest losers were older Australians, who waited on average 76 days for their age pension claims to be processed, up from 33 the year before. The target is 49 days.

Those seeking a disability pension waited on average 93 days for their claim to be resolved, up from 46 days from the previous 12 -month period. The agency’s target is 84 days.

Older Australians waited on average 76 days for their age pension claims to be processed by Centrelink, up from 33 the year before. The target is 49 days.

Karen Samson, 57, who has a mental health diagnosis and fibromyalgia, set up a Facebook group called Disability Support Pension Advocacy Australia to help others having difficulty claiming. She said waiting times had blown out in recent years.

“As the success rate for first claims is so low, 20 to 30 per cent, the length of time to wait for an appeal of a rejection usually takes about another year, sometimes even longer, just to get an outcome,” Ms Samson said.

Shadow Minister for Government Services Paul Fletcher, who obtained the data, said it’s proof that Australians are worse off under Labor, blaming the former Government Services Minister Bill Shorten who was in charge in recent years. Senator Katy Gallagher took over the portfolio this month.

“Australians are struggling with the cost of living and their lives are being made harder due to Labor’s mismanagement of Centrelink,” Mr Fletcher said.

“Under Labor, automation processes have been paused, call centre contracts scrapped and specialist tech jobs axed, all of which have reduced the capacity of the agency to deliver top-quality customer service.”

Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said the agency hired an additional 3000 staff to help process claims and take calls, and they were now seeing the benefits.

He said the 2023-24 financial year data takes into account a time prior to the full onboarding of the new staff.

He said data from the first six months of this financial year shows the agency is processing Centrelink claims 61 per cent faster compared to 2023-24.

In the 2024-25 financial year, the average claim processing time for the Age Pension was now 41 days, down 46 per cent, Mr Jongen said.

The average processing time for the Disability Support Pension is 64 days, down 31 per cent.

Mr Jongen said in this financial year, the agency received nearly 1.7m new Centrelink claims, and processed almost 88 per cent of them on time.

Mr Fletcher’s spokeswoman said claim waiting times fluctuate during the year, which is why a full year’s data is a more accurate way of assessing Services Australia’s performance.

Originally published as Centrelink wait times for claims blow out for third year in a row, as agency says it’s getting better