Centrelink leaves 26 million calls unanswered

[Banjo]

Centrelink leaves 26 million calls unanswered

Nearly half of the 57 million phone calls made to Centrelink last year went unanswered, according to a new report by the Australian National Audit Office.

About 13.7 million calls did not even make it into the system after they were blocked or received a "busy signal".

Another estimated 12.9 million were simply "abandoned" as the callers tired of waiting to speak to an operator, the audit of the Department of Human Services' "SmartCentres" found.

Lengthy waits for Centrelink telephones to be answered is the No.1 complaint against the welfare agency from its customers, and the audit found the problem is worsening.

The auditors reported the "average" waiting time that Centrelink reported to the government - 16 minutes - did not reflect the true experience of many customers, 30 per cent of whom waited unanswered for 30 minutes or more before their inquiry was answered.

On the positive side, the Auditor-General's office acknowledged that the department was making progress in revamping its customer service and moving tens of millions of transactions each year online.

But the auditors questioned why the giant department could not follow the lead of other government agencies, like the Tax Office, and give callers a more realistic idea of how long they might be waiting.

"Of the 56.8 million calls made to Centrelink 1800 or 13 telephone numbers in 2013-14, 43.1 million calls were able to enter the network while 13.7 million calls were unable to enter the network, that is, the calls were blocked and the callers heard the 'busy' signal," the report says.

"Of the 43 million calls in 2013-14 that were able to enter the network, around 45 per cent were answered by a service officer and around a quarter were resolved in the interactive voice response system."

But the audit office estimated the remaining 30 per cent, about 12.9 million phone calls, were simply abandoned.

In its defence, Human Services said that it must work with the resources it is allocated and estimated it would need to hire 1000 new public servants, at an annual cost of $100 million, to bring average waiting times down to five minutes.

But the auditors found the department's performance did not stack up well against that of other departments.

"The current target does not provide a clear indication of the wait times Centrelink telephone customers can generally expect, due to the distribution of actual wait times around the 'average'. Centrelink customers also continue to experience high levels of call blocking and call abandonment, which can further impact on the customer experience," the report says.

www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/centrelink-leaves-26-million-calls-unanswered-20150520-gh5iow.html?rand=9756568

[nomadic]

Surprise surprise? Not in the slightest to all of us who have been put on hold/cut off etc. ROYAL COMMISSION PLEASE!

[Banjo]

Unfortunately Royal Commissions seem to have been relegated to an expensive way of attacking your political opponents.

The last two, one into the home insulation program and the other into Gillard and the unions seem to be going nowhere.

Not sure what they're costing but the third on the table, institutional child abuse seems to have been allotted over $400 million over 4 years by treasury.

[Denis-NFA]

A billion $ new computer will fix it.

[Deleted]

Centrelink staff have been cut to almost nothing, my local office has only a few workers and tons of empty workstations so I assume the call center is the same.

[Deleted]

If we ring up for an enquiry regarding DSP by the time our call actually gets through we are eligible for the old age pension.

[Banjo]

Days of drudgery, abuse and threats on Centrelink's phones

A Centrelink call-centre employee has told of working days filled with threats, abuse, unpaid overtime and desperate attempts to help clients in trouble.

The public servant, stung by online attacks on her and her colleagues in the wake of the Auditor-General's revelations of Centrelink's shocking record of answering the phone, says she and her co-workers do their best under very tough circumstances.

The Australian National Audit Office's report shows how the numbers of public servants answering phones for the welfare agency was slashed by more than 25 per cent in six years while the number of calls they were expected to answer increased by more than 10 million a year.

But it is the voice on the end of the phone that often bears the brunt of clients' frustrations, according to the worker, who cannot be identified publicly.

Describing one recent day at the office, she told how she had "worked an extra unpaid hour to complete a claim for a customer".

"Last count got abused and sworn at eight times, that's a good day.

"Granted five payments, referred a customer to a social worker, for DV [domestic violence], answered 48 calls and helped each customer in every way I could."

Centrelink Smartcentre workers are a long way from the stereotype of Canberra's public service elite: the operators are more likely to be mothers, work part-time or casually, and be based in regional Australia than nearly any other group of public servants.

The audit report revealed the number of "service officers" employed by Centrelink has dwindled from 3891 in 2009-10 to just 2743 in 2013-14.

But during the same period, the number of customer phone calls that actually git through to Centrelink's telephony system surged from 32.7 million to 43.7 million.

The service officer said the pressure on her and her colleagues was demoralising.

She said she and her co-workers often worked late, without being offered flexi-time by their bosses, to help clients who were having trouble.

"We don't get flexi days we work over our allocated shift helping people ... after being abused most days," she said.

"I am only a mother, a person just like you.

"I love my job and do my absolute best every day, like everyone I know at the Department of Human Services.

"Don't blame the staff, we are there to help you but with all the cuts our job is getting more difficult.

"We don't make the policy or legislation we deliver it."

www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/days-of-drudgery-abuse-and-threats-on-centrelinks-phones-20150521-gh6m1z.html

[Banjo]

Customers hanging up on Centrelink

THE federal government says it will not waste taxpayers’ money on more staff to reduce lengthy Centrelink telephone wait times.

A new report shows millions are hanging up in frustration with the service.

More than 13 million calls to the hotline received a busy signal in 2013-14, the Commonwealth auditor’s report has found.

Of the 43 million calls that were able to enter the network during the same period, nearly a third were abandoned by callers who waited an average of nine minutes on the line.

Lengthy waits are what people most complain about with regard to Centrelink services, the report shows.

Average wait times have jumped from three minutes to 16 minutes in the space of three years, The report recommends that the Department of Human Services review its performance standards.

Labor wants customers to be made aware of how long they can expect to wait, especially considering the rollout of a $1 billion computer system will take several years.

But Human Services Minister Marise Payne says it will cost more than $100 million each year to fund about 1000 more staff to handle the calls.

That does not sit well with the government’s mantra of putting Australia on a path of living within its means.

“Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to address the symptoms and not the cause of Centrelink telephone wait times is not a responsible use of taxpayer money,” Senator Payne said. The new IT system would reduce wait times by encouraging people to go online instead of phoning, she added.

CENTRELINK WAIT TIMES:

* In 2010-11, customers could expect to wait three minutes and 5 seconds; in 2013-14 that shot up to 16 minutes and 53 seconds.

* Of the 56.8 million calls made to Centrelink in 2013-14, 43.1 million calls were able to enter the network while 13.7 million calls ended up with a busy signal.

* Of the calls that were able to enter the network, about 45 per cent were answered and about a quarter were resolved.

* Customers hung up on the remaining calls, about 30 per cent.

* Those who hung up waited an average of nine minutes and 42 seconds before abandoning the call.

www.news.com.au/finance/economy/customers-hanging-up-on-centrelink/story-e6frflo9-1227362335864

[scallywag]

Probably half the calls I make to them are because I have received incorrect information from them and most of the other half are to ask about the progress of my claim.

[Banjo]

A major cause of that is the fear they have of putting anything in writing before a decision is made.
It's like all officers below a certain level are only allowed to communicate in the most basic terms which, of course, leaves room for an enormous amount of misunderstanding and confusion.

I can only put this down to terror of social media.

[mikey]

A public servant's account of what it's like to work in a Centrelink call centre

As a casual working for the Department of Human Services, I unfortunately see the brunt of Centrelink wait times. I see the abuse, tears and anguish.

I've had to get social workers for suicide threats, assaults and more.

I've had a woman tell me she recently discovered her father had been sexually abusing her son.

I've had someone on disability support pension for a psychiatric illness advise me she has had her home destroyed and money taken from people she thought she could trust.

An immigrant student who does not residentially qualify for family payments needing help because the father of the child (an Australian man) abandoned her and her family have disowned her and removed financial support due to her bringing shame upon them.

Yesterday I had two people call to advise of the deaths of relatives.

We get it all.

I used to get emails (as did others) from management advising of transactions we completed for customers that we should have pushed to self service, followed by more emails explaining the need to get people online.

It's like an unofficial negative KPI.

Don't get me wrong, management are understanding when we need to complete such transactions for those in hardship but otherwise we need to get people online or we get sat down for a coaching session advising us of ways to get people off the phones.

There have been reports of customers calling regarding urgent circumstances (family break down, domestic violence etc.) not getting through due to the high volume of calls for very basic transactions.

How many more suicidal people or people needing help with welfare referrals, like getting a refuge, are not coming through because most transactions should be done online or via Interactive Voice Response?

This is what we are faced with. The war against wait times.

One week I had to take half the week off (unpaid as per joys of being casual) because I reached my limit of abuse after being shaken by a customer threatening to take their own life.

So yes, there are days or weeks when we need to weigh up the value of our mental well-being vs the money paid from shifts.

As a result, Family Tax Benefit Reconciliation, aka "Reco" time, can be seen as downright traumatic for some because of customers abusing staff due to over-payments and now, reduced thresholds.

Counselling services are available but as casual staff there is the underlying fear that complaining too much may make us seem too unfit to do the job and therefore result in termination.

I now tell people that I just cannot complete the simple transactions that can be completed via self service, and on days when our unreliable system and software is having issues (most days) that is actually very accurate.

Customers then become abusive when I need to advise "sorry our document system is down so I cannot tell whether or not the documents you have uploaded are actually there".

"Sorry I cannot access files at the moment, so whilst your payment has been suspended... Can you call back tomorrow?"

Half the work force at the smart-centre I work in are now casual and whilst that is great for wait times, it results in people being transferred back into the queue via the priority line faster because the permanent staff that have the training and authority to complete more complete enquiries are being laid off.

More casuals are answering the phones so great, calls are being picked up faster (supposedly) but what the stats don't cover is the amount of transfers that need to be done when something complex does come through because the casual work force is mostly trained in basic things people now need to do themselves.

We are there to essentially get people online.

In July calls are expected to be chaotic due to the new Family Tax Benefit thresholds that were a part of last year's budget. For many people their payments will be cancelled.

If that is the case, please don't abuse staff when you call, chances are you're speaking to someone that has also been affected by budget measures.

httwww.theage.com.au/comment/a-public-servants-account-of-what-its-like-to-work-in-a-centrelink-call-centre-20150522-gh79zs.html

[Banjo]

Five-minute calls to Centrelink come with a catch

Centrelink phone lines have their best day in years - while the heat is on.

A desperate effort to staff the phones after an embarrassing audit report helped Centrelink reduce its wait-time average the next day to less than five minutes per call.

But evidence is emerging that other services suffered as up to 500 officials were redirected from other duties to take calls in a massive damage control exercise after Wednesday's revelations about Centrelink's failing customer service systems.

The main public sector union says Centrelink clients will face delays of months getting their payments approved as officials scramble to catch up on the lost working hours.

But the giant Department of Human Services, which runs the welfare agency, said it had conducted business as usual in the wake of a scathing Auditor-General's report revealing tens of millions of phone calls going unanswered each year.

Callers to the agency's lines were pleasantly surprised on Thursday to find themselves put through, often to a human operator, in what was understood to be less than five minutes on average across the network.

The official "average wait" time published by the Department of Human Services, which runs Centrelink was just under 17 minutes in 2013-2014.

The Auditor-General's report that sparked this week's furore was critical of the reporting methods, finding the official version was far removed from the experience of many frustrated callers.

There were few such issues on Thursday as hundreds of officials were taken off other duties and directed to operate telephones with a senior manager admitting frankly in an internal email that the move was a reaction to "significant media attention surrounding our wait times for customers".

But services elsewhere were not business as usual, with clients at the Centrelink office suburban Melbourne, being told by a notice that things might be a little slow that day with staff members unavailable help them with their cases.

Clients were instead encouraged to log onto the internet for a faster service.

Centrelink was already struggling to meet its targets for making decisions on payments, according to the latest official figures.

Just over half of Family Tax Benefit claims were processed within the hoped-for five weeks and only 63 per cent of baby bonus cases decided within the target of three weeks.

But a departmental spokeswoman denied any changes to Centrelink's front desk arrangements to supply workers to the phone-answering effort.

"Staff arrangements in our service centres are managed separately to our call centres and there were no changes yesterday to our face-to-face staffing arrangements," she said.

"The average wait time in service centres yesterday was well within standard."

The DHS spokeswoman also said that it was normal for the department to move workers from processing claims to answering phones and back again.

"Smart Centres have been designed specifically to increase flexibility in moving staff between call and processing work, according to changing demands and priorities," she said.

"These staffing movements have continued this week in line with usual business practice.

"The department regularly uses overtime to keep on top of processing and this will continue to be the case."

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood said she did not believe the department's claims of business as usual.

"We know this will cause major delays in approving payments and they do not have enough staff to catch up with that work," she said.

"We could see delays of months in approving payments as they struggle to get on top of this backlog."

www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/fiveminute-calls-to-centrelink-come-with-a-catch-20150523-gh7bj4.html

[quantumranger]

Who watched this article on A current affair. It was ridiculous.
ACA conducted there own calls to centrelink.
I can't remember exactly but they made a few phone calls to centrelink and they said the average wait time was 9 minutes.
What garbage.
The last time I had a 9 minute wait time was NEVER.
Today I tried calling through for 25 minutes and the line was always busy and couldn't even get through.

We need more jobs created why don't we give people some jobs working at centrelink