Centrelink call wait times balloon to 16 minutes on average

Centrelink’s much-maligned phone system is again under fire, after the agency’s telephone average wait time ballooned out to almost 16 minutes last financial year.

The average caller to the welfare agency waited 15 minutes and 44 seconds to speak to someone last year but people phoning about disability, sickness or carers’ payments, or unemployment all waited close to half an hour on the phone.

The figures, contained in the latest Department of Human Services annual report, show that the average wait time has blown out by four minutes since 2011.

It’s the longest wait time since the department overhauled its reporting regime in 2014.

Labor’s social services spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin, called the figures “unacceptable”.

“Centrelink is in crisis under the Turnbull government,” she said. “Pensioners, students and families are waiting longer and longer to get through over the phone to Centrelink.”

The phone system has come in for significant criticism in recent years. In 2015-16, about 42% of the 68m calls made to Centrelink were blocked. Another 7.12m calls were abandoned.

Senate estimates has previously heard that more than 55m calls to the agency were greeted with a busy signal last financial year.

More recently, the phone system returned 100 engaged signals in three hours when tested by staff of the independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

The department has defended the latest blowout in wait times, saying the year-on-year increase was only 35 seconds, and the average time was below the agency target of 16 minutes.

But the wait time for specific services was significantly longer.

People phoning about disability, sickness or carers payments waited an average of 28 minutes and 17 seconds, more than three minutes longer than the previous year.

Those calling about unemployment were typically on hold for 30 minutes and 21 seconds, a year-on-year increase of about five minutes.

And young people and students waited on average 31 minutes and 15 seconds, an almost six minute increase.

Labor and the Public Service Union have been critical of the government’s management of the agency, including the decision in October by the human services minister, Alan Tudge, to hire an extra 250 contract staff from a private firm to help operate the welfare agency’s call centre.

“More outsourcing. Less permanent full-time staff. Longer call wait times. That’s the pattern under the Turnbull government,” Macklin said.

In a statement, a department spokesman said the agency “continues to meet the 16-minute call wait time target which we are funded to deliver”.

“We are answering tens of thousands of calls every day and helping people with their Centrelink business,” the spokesman said.

“We are also taking action to reduce call wait times, including the government funding additional resourcing to answer calls about select Centrelink payments and services.”

Measures taken to reduce wait times included “digital assistants to answer simple questions and help people complete their applications”, a new website, and “providing a way for people to track the progress of their claim”.

“This level of change is not a quick fix, but we are making regular improvements to our technology so people don’t have to call in the first place,” the spokesman said.