Centrelink Reviews 

Firstly if I can give zero stars I would .
This office would have to be staffed with one of the most incompetent staff I’ve ever experienced.
Every time I’ve presented myself to update my aged care parents details the staff here somehow miraculously find a way to stuff it up and pass the buck back to me.
Last time they stuffed up I got a call from Adelaide head office regarding a separate issue and asked could they fix my current problem.
The very courteous and highly intelligent officer named Georgia not only fixed everything but also restored the cancellations of pensions to my parents overnight.
If there was one Georgia stationed at every Centrelink office I guarantee you that every time the 6th graders who are staffed there would have less errors .
If the cowardly aged care minister mark butler managed to call me after I contacted hes office personally this whole scenario would not of occurred but what do you expect from a government that consists of MPs who take theyre families on Working holidays charging it to the tax payers while people like my parents who worked half a century get screwed over in they’re vulnerable years!
Pathetic!

I've been on Centerlink for 3 years after a workplace injury & most staff are very helpful but this complaint is about when you're expecting a call from them.
Everytime they send a message saying "A Service Australia officer will call today from a private number, please answer this call", it either rings for a split second, doesn't ring at all & you get a missed call message or no missed call at all but when you call them (or visit the office as I did) they say "oh yes they called you but you didn't answer" but my call logs would say otherwise.
Clearly they call & hang up quickly so they can meet there daily quota.
Once is an accident but everytime they call you & it's not just me, this is systemic rorting.😡

All these negative reviews clearly didn’t get a chance to speak to Connie! She was an absolute sweetheart and was able to fix my issue instantly. Without her, I would have been screwed. Thankyou again Connie! The world needs more people like you 😍

Now the online app doesn't let me log in, asks for a new password that I don't know because I HAVEN'T GOT ONE then says if I FORGOT it they will email me a code...AND THEN THEY DON'T SEND ANYTHING!!!
I UTTERLY HATE CENTRELINK

I have a young woman who lives with me she has a 3 year old and 5year old. She has an intellectual disability. Centrelink have threatened to cut off her payments. IN the last year she has had $5 taken off her familysupport because she was sick and couldn't get the 5year old tested in their time frame. SHE DOESN"T DRIVE and I am 70 and still work-I try to help her as much as I can. NOW she is being told to submit her income by 5/7/26 and she may need to pay money back. DO CENTRELINK EVEN CHECK WHY THESE PEOPLE ARE ON AN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY? DO THEY THINK THAT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS SAID?? THESE PEOPLE SHJOULD BE TREATED COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO OTHERS. NOw she is being told if it's not done she will be cut off all together!!!!!!!!! I can't afford to keep them-do I put them out on the street?

refuses to help me or even give me a low-income card. I have no income! they want us to be poor and broke so we rely on the system.

Ive seen basket weaving forums run out of central Asian, post-Soviet dictatorship with websites that work better than Centrelink. Every single function will break and you will have to call them every time in a vain hope to get it fixed. Staff have seemingly no idea how anything works and I can't blame them, the process is extremely esoteric and I'd be surprised if their training was anywhere near sufficient. Abandon all hope if their technical incompetence leads to you getting a few dollars more than they think you're worth, they'll send their bloodhounds after you to scrape back every red cent.

I’ve been left waiting for an hour and 20+ minutes which is honestly annoying because I’m spending half my time waiting on them to finally answer my call and I can guarantee you half of them might just be on break or just sitting in their little box desk doing nothing. Do better honestly cause the service is just disgusting

Since January 2026, I have worked with Centrelink on several occasions to set up my Age Pension payments. My first visit was to the Wonthaggi branch on 28 January, and since then I have made at least five phone enquiries. Every staff member I have dealt with has been friendly, patient, professional, and eager to help. It is rare to receive such consistently excellent service, and I am very grateful for the support I have received. Every interaction has been worthy of a five-star rating.

My first time with Centrelink was very positive. My skills have deteriorated as I’ve aged and I was very apprehensive before going to the office.
My husband and I had Ann as our advisor at Toowong. She couldn’t have been more helpful. She was competent and caring, a wonderful combination.
Thank you Ann.
Catherine Graham

Horrible organisation. I applied for Jobseeker after making 280k the last FY and paying 110k in tax. They told me they had everything they needed to make a decision in the next week. I check mygov a month later and they asked for a 'profit and loss statement' for a 500/week rideshare job before cancelling my application.

Very unprofessional customer service. Sitting on the phone for an hour and 40 minutes for them to answer.
But what do we expect they are a government department usless

Well when I called Centrelink to make a complaint they put me on hold for 45 minutes. And as a student I’m considered dependent meaning they pay me based of how much my mum makes (I’m not blaming her she hates centre link as much as me)so they cut my payment because she didn’t do her tax return then they made her fill out another modjy form in order for me to get my payment the morons at centre link already have one so why do they need another? In fact the whole dependent shit is stupid I’m 19 legally an adult so why should get my money depend on weather my mum does her tax return I’m my own person.

I attended the Springwood office to apply for an aged pension. I had to ask to have an appointment and be driven there for assistance as I'm recovering from cataract surgery and was not confident driving. The place had 3 people there with one always seeming to skive off on 'lunch' or a break of some kind. The assistance ended up being a flat top shiny trousers type who had a rudimentary command of English giving me a form and pointing me towards one of the two computers that actually worked. It took over two hours to fill in the sections as one form was a 40 page paper form peppered with ambiguous questions but only allowing for yes/no answers. I asked the staff for help and they couldn't have been more disinterested. They just told me to tick the no box and that I was lucky as an 'appointment' actually consisted of 15 minutes of their precious time so I was taking up someone else's time of the sole working computer. Months later I still have no pension. I approached the local Federal member whose office did respond and I got a text push advising I would be called today by one of their staff; probably as my application has been labelled as 'complex' - probably because of their poor questioning design, lack of help, and lack of interest - and I can see I'm probably going to have to battle these creatures right through to an ARO and Tribunal if necessary as they will probably try to deny me a pension and put every possible obstacle in the way to obtaining one. Of course the phone call never came. Must have been looking for an early mark to get out for their Easter holidays.

They are the worst type of public servant I've ever encountered, state or federal, and the fact that they worked through the unlawful RoboDebt scandal demonstrates the lower trophic zone these people inhabit. A disgraceful office and level of service. I can't believe I taught in schools and universities for decades to see people of this low calibre working in a public service role. Their natural place would be in low skilled positions and roles and not working with people where developed inter/ intra-personal communication skills are essential. A national and local obscenity.

As an addendum, the mooted phone call came today from this miserable type with its small shop keeper mentality and whiny mingeing voice to boot. I have a small company which has never made any money as it was set up to make a film and despite having a chartered accountant complete the books for the company so it's up to date, this caller from Centrelink wants more information - which should be in the returns signed off by the ATO and which were uploaded to Centrelink in their entirety! So, more delay and expense as I have to go back to the accountant to confirm this information was provided. Also asked me if I'd be overseas recently! I had taken a trip to New Zealand with my daughter in 2024 to spread my late wife's ashes there. More delays and expense.

I sent the information by uploading on their lousy third world system. Then, as a further annoyance, I get a letter today demanding more information about the company assets from start of this year to the date of application for an aged pension.

Why didn't they ask for this in the first place? So they've back paid me from my application date but there is obviously a 'dirt unit' in this abomination that does its upmost to cost people more money and harass them in the hope that they will give up or they might find something and try to deny my pension. This is what was put in the letter; that my pension will be terminated if I don't provide the information within 14 days. So off to an accountant to provide these fiends in human form with the information at more expense to me.

So, I uploaded the information to their crappy website and mailed the form and print out back to Canberra. Wonder if this treatment is linked to me making a formal complaint to the local Federal MP?! There is a special place in Hell for these vermin who will try anything to make people give up and go away or prevent them from getting the aged pension they're entitled to. I hope you all get to where you deserve to be.

So the noticeboard says 10 min wait. 40 mins later we get to a counter. Then was advised we need to fill out a form and need to go and get another ticket ... what tha hell! Now 45 mins later still waiting to hand back the completed form. BTW we could NOT do this online because of their crappy website.

I find Centrelink as an organisation to be near-completely useless. When I retired in December, I went to Centrelink and filled out the forms for the age pension (I'm 69); and now it is coming up mid-March, and my pension is not finalized. It seems to me that they keep putting up obscure roadblocks concerning technicalities, to not pay me. In the meantime, I've had to ask friends for money to buy groceries/pay bills. This is interfering with my mental health very negatively. This morning I had suicidal thoughts...I find little or no compassion, or empathy while dealing with staff; I've gone in more than ten times to try to sort these issues out, it's near-impossible to ring, because there's an hour wait on the phone, and my Internet is dodgy at best. Extremely unhappy! I have worked hard for more than 50 years, and paid thousands in tax: to be treated like a thief or scammer at my retirement is beyond belief or understanding! These ppl don't deserve a one-star rating. Angry and unhappy in the extreme.
Phil Gedye

I went to Centrelink at Caringbah this morning. I've never been there before and, based on reputation was dreading it. It was just to to confirm my id in person. The lady at the front desk was lovely. Didn't even have time to finish a game on my phone before they called me. Very quick, very efficient. I could hear another lady trying very hard to explain stuff to a man who was not easy. She had the patience of a saint

Service Australia Centerlink
Staff the majority of them are rude and lack Empathy. They don't want to listen to what you have to say cut you off when speaking.
Waiting almost 1 hour on the phone to get through to someone is a joke , then once you get through and you speak to someone they don't care.
Kylie from the Authorised Review Team in NSW- is so Rude has no Empathy it's her way or the High way.
Centerlink in general needs an over haul especially when it comes to there staffing, you can clearly see they don't want to be there.
You walk into the Centerlink office short staff it's rush rush .....

Centrelink is the ABSOLUTE imbersile institute to deal with don't have a problem your ok if not 🚭🚭 I could tell some hum dingers about my issues I have had and still having

This is the most outdated system I think I’ve ever seen. You MUST read out your CRN (possibly several times because this is like if Siri was made in the ‘90s), then “In Australia my voice identifies me”.

Once you make it through this, you have to state what your question is? Saying “Operator” won’t ever get you an Operator. You have to try multiple times before it hangs up on you.

Then once you get in, you’re looking at hours of waiting through the most depressing music, with the automated voice saying little spiels to breakup the monotony.

In an age, where the computer system is complex for most people, and most elderly people can’t use Smartphones or (in my late Nana’s experience) doesn’t own a computer, they’re at the mercy of this system with minimal expenditure in infrastructure, despite working and paying taxes for 50+ years into public services that have ALL been PRIVATISED!

I’m wanting to get Austudy, and despite our generous HELP-Loans (it used to be HECS or free for today’s Politicians), Universities have adopted a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system instead of having libraries that have dozens of computers. Why? To save costs!

If you’re in Engineering, Healthcare, Science, etc. You need at least $2k to afford a computer (because of companies investing hundreds of billions into computational hardware to run these AI centres, export fees, planned obsolescence, some places requiring Macs, etc) that runs the COMPULSORY PROGRAMS you need.

Don’t have $2k? You can’t get a HELP-Loan to cover it. Don’t have parents that can shill out $2k? Tough luck!

Commute 2 hours to university and back, but only live in the outer-urban sprawl, no accommodation assistance.

Lucky enough to get a great paying internship? Don’t earn too much, or you’ll get deductions from your Youth Allowance or Austudy (significantly below the poverty line).

So your goal is to turn that internship into possibly $60k pa salary, to fob off this detestable system.

Meanwhile, Germany has free tuition for everyone and Denmark actually gives you a liveable income to study on.

But hey, at least we’re not as bad as America. Yet!