Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Last month's budget confirmed that the government will cut staffing levels to the Department of Human Services by 1,280. Last year the government reduced the department's ASL by 1,180. This reduction of almost 2,500 over the past two years has had a devastating impact on the department, on its staff, on its services and, most importantly, on its clients. The age pensioners and carers are waiting longer to have their payments approved by Centrelink. Median processing times for the age pension have increased from 36 days to 49 days; for carers, from 28 days to 47 days. These are just median times. The median times data doesn't take into account instances when Centrelink requests further information, which can further delay the approval process, often by many, many days.

The reality is that many older Australians and many carers are waiting many more months for their payments. We have absolute evidence of this, and so will every one of you in your constituent offices. Australians who have worked all their lives and carers looking after loved ones are being forced to live on the edge of their bank accounts and go into poverty. Ask any Australian who has contact with Centrelink and they will tell you their own personal nightmare. Average call wait times have blown out for all of those particular payments. For older Australians times have jumped from 19 minutes to 23 minutes, and the list goes on and on and on. These are just the averages. We've heard stories of people waiting absolutely hours just to speak to someone. It is absolutely true. We know that many are attempting to circumvent the phone lines by attending Centrelink in person. They are also facing longer wait times. The average wait time has gone from 12 minutes and four seconds to over 15 minutes, and this is on record. Just look at budget estimates. It is often the case that people who attend in person are directed back to the phones and forced back into enduring lengthy wait times on the phone. I have spoken to such people, and they have told me their own personal stories. We know that over the past year the government has attempted to shift more people to managing their Centrelink matters online. We also know that this transition has not been easy, particularly for older Australians. We know this because the number of busy signals for older Australians on the age pension phone line has increased from 800,000 to 1.2 million.

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