New Services Australia data shows who is being kept on hold the longest – and who is being forced to hang up

New data has revealed which Australians are being kept on hold the longest and who is being forced to hang up. See the results.

Older Australians have been forced to wait on hold the longest with Services Australia by an average wait time of 36.5 minutes, new data has revealed.

The new analysis of Service Australia operational data from April-June this year revealed which Australians were kept on hold the most, and who hangs up first.

People needing support for disabilities, sickness and carers waited on hold the second longest at an average of 36 minutes, followed by people seeking help from youth and students (34 minutes) and Centrelink aged care payments (23 minutes).

Australians who got the most fed up and hung up before their call was answered were those seeking support with Centrelink aged care payments (28 per cent).

They were followed by three categories which had the same call termination rate of 16 per cent: families and parenting; youth and students; and older Australians.

Those calling for help with disabilities, sickness and carers were the next group to hang up (14 per cent).

In the 24-25 financial year, Services Australia received almost 30.5 million calls for social security concerns, with 11 per cent of recorded as hang ups. In April-June, there were more than 7.5 million calls and 12 per cent were hang ups.

Services Australia last year copped flak for its call wait times ballooning out, with some hold times doubling and in one category people were forced to wait to an average of 52 minutes.

This April-June quarter, on-hold times and hang up rates have improved in some areas compared to the same period last year.

Australians who hung up before their call was answered were seeking support with Centrelink aged care payments. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen.

Call wait times slightly improved in all categories, except child support, where the average wait grew to 15 minutes, up from 13.5.

Call times to Medicare have almost halved, down from 22 minutes to just 12.

The rate of terminated calls increased slightly in most categories but dipped significantly in Centrelink aged care payments (down from 40 per cent) and Medicare (down from 47 per cent) compared to the same time last year.

“We’ve reduced claim processing times significantly from this time last year, minimising the need to call to check on the status of a claim,” Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said.

“We’re continuously looking at ways to reduce the time customers wait to speak with us and we’ve made significant inroads on both claims processing and call wait times.

“Our use of congestion messaging has fallen by more than 80 per cent compared to the same time last year, meaning more people are getting through to speak to staff.

“We have improved our call routing and increased the training for staff, resulting in less calls needing to be transferred once a customer is speaking to a staff member. In the 2024-25 financial year, calls transferred reduced by over 460,000.”

He said Services Australia had introduced “more convenient ways” for people to contact them, including offering callbacks when demand was high, an online booking service for Centrelink customers, and its interactive voice response messaging service.

Originally published as New Services Australia data shows who is being kept on hold the longest – and who is being forced to hang up