Services Australia bungle results in 11,000 older Australians being over paid or underpaid
A tech glitch at Services Australia – which is under fire for its falling performance in the past year – has resulted in thousands of older Aussies being under or over paid.
Thousands of Australians on income support payments have been either under or over paid, with the public kept in the dark over the bungle.
A confidential government brief obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveals 11,000 people were impacted by the welfare agency’s tech glitch, with more than 7000 yet to be contacted.
Services Australia has been under fire for its dire performance in the last year, with angry customers taking to Facebook to complain about being kept on hold on the phone for up to five hours, or making up to 120 calls a week and not being able to get through. Morale among staff at the agency is at rock bottom with a strike held last month over pay, and 180 quitting a month.
This new scandal was uncovered by the Opposition after it requested a copy of Minister Bill Shorten’s Question Time Brief.
It revealed thousands of Australians may have received incorrect rates of payment because customers had their superannuation incorrectly excluded from the income and assets tests assessment upon reaching the Age Pension age.
Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen said they had reviewed payment records of approximately 3,800 Age Pensioners whose rate may have been wrongly calculated due to a system error. The error was fixed in December 2022.
He said they were still checking the remaining 7,100 customer records to ensure that they were being paid the right amount.
“No one will need to repay any money as a result of this issue,” Mr Jongen said.
“We sincerely apologise for any confusion or distress it’s caused our customers.”
He said a dedicated team of specialised staff was contacting impacted customers directly to explain the issue, make necessary changes to their payments, and provide them with any additional support needed. He said there was no need for anyone to call Services Australia about the matter.
For some people who have been reassessed, their future payment rates have changed if it was found their actual income and assets were above the minimum Age Pension threshold.
For each of the 3800 cases assessed to date, overpayments were waived.
Shadow Minister for Government Services Paul Fletcher said the minister must apologise to impacted Australians and be honest with the public about what happened.
“It’s deeply disappointing and concerning that it took a Freedom of Information request to find out about this processing disaster,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Thousands of vulnerable Australians have been unfairly caught up in a Services Australia tech glitch during a cost of living crisis.
“The public should have been informed of a bungle of this kind, but what we’ve seen is Bill Shorten avoiding transparency and instead sweeping the problem under the carpet because his agency is in disarray.”
He said he wanted to know whether Minister Shorten had conducted a review into how this disaster came about?
In 2022-23, Labor’s first full year in office, it took Services Australia on average almost 23 minutes to answer a Centrelink-related call, compared to 14 minutes and 14 seconds in the previous financial year.
This was despite the number of calls being handled dropping from 21,988,841 in 2021-22 to 12,911,012 in 2022-23.
Mr Jongen said they were recruiting 3,000 additional service delivery staff to help improve customer experience and a third had already accepted permanent positions.
Thousands of frustrated customers have bombarded Services Australia’s Facebook page to complain about the agency. Here are just a few of their complaints.
Ruining lives
“Dear centrelink please answer your phone or let us leave voicemail or book an appointment with you. Anything! Please. You are ruining lives by not answering your phone at ignoring us.”
50 plus calls a day
“This system needs fixing, when ppl have been trying to call for weeks and I’m talking 50+ attempts at calling every day and still can’t get through … iv a better chance at winning the lotto than getting answered.”
On hold hell
“Was waiting 4hrs complaints jobseeker line won’t even accept my call been trying for weeks.”
Calls cut off
“I have been ‘hung up’ on now close to 30 times this afternoon. Please help?”
Disconnected
“I can’t even get the IVR to connect me to wait on hold. The recording basically says, “we’re too busy to take your call, goodbye.” Then the line is disconnected.”
Impossible to get through
“have been trying to ring to make an appointment for 2 days now. Keeps hanging up on me. and If I try again it hangs up again. Need to book an appointment for job seeker payment and proof of identity. iTs inpossible to get an appointment.”
Appalling service
“I am a single parent and had to stop working to care for my mother after a cancer diagnosis. I have tried for three months to get support online, over the phone, and in person and had zero luck.”
Wrong payments
“Hey Services Australia why was one of my payments randomly $40 less than it should have been ??”
Frustration
“Any plan to pick up the phones anytime soon instead of just hanging up on people?”
Breaking point
“After four days of trying to get a social worker I went in to my local office only to be told to come back tomorrow seriously at breaking point no i dont need life line I need a social worker.”
Automated system fails
“Been trying to get a hold of you lot for days but the automated phone systems keep hanging up on me because they don’t understand my request, and won’t let me call back. This is a joke. I need help and I can’t even get through to a real person to get it sorted.”
Promise of 3000 new staff
“This is a ALP furphy to make the public believe they are trying to address a completely broken system. Creating 3000 new employees will achieve nothing when the departments are losing 180 per month.”
Lack of humans
“U call to speak to a person and get the same reply over and over again. High demand, busy, busy and hang up on U! Ridiculous! I almost miss the days of trying to understand the operator’s broken English and etc. At least a human was attempting to help. You’re a joke services Australia.”
System not working
“The automated system isn’t working, hanging up and not allowing people to callback isn’t the solution. Time to give humans back their jobs.”
‘Stupid’ robots
“Use (sic) are actually useless been trying to contact all day just get hung up on by your stupid robot. Now I’m pregnant and have to walk over an hour to see one of use (sic) … disgusting.”
Disconnected
“Your phone service is Abysmal … I was on hold for 1 hour and 33 mins only to get disconnected when someone finally answered the phone … Fabulous work”
No money
“why have I been waiting months for centre link payment does the Govt want to send me broke ???”
Broken Promises
“You said you were calling me last week. Noone did and my claim has been denied and no reason given. Absolute joke!!”
Slow processing
“Over 3 months waiting on a disability claim. 2 weeks over estimated date. Just not good enough. Centerlink needs a major overhaul. I’ve waited over two hours every single time I call.”
Long waiting times
“Maybe a call back option would be better for this so I don’t have to listen to the painful music while I go about my day.”
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Originally published as Services Australia bungle results in 11,000 older Australians being over paid or underpaid
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