Centrelink Reviews 

I applied for age pension for my wife and myself in early June 2023. I had to wait for a period of time until they notified me that I had “undeclared investments” from a superannuation account which I closed and notified them of in 2016! I again advised them IN WRITING of this and was given an expected completion date of 10 August. It is now 31 August and my claim is still “in progress.” We have been living on fast dwindling savings and have very little left. I have been forced to consider re-entering the work force while this bunch of inept individuals sit on their collective hands. This is a service I have helped to fund by working and paying tax.
If minus stars were possible, I would give them minus 25 for their indifference to the Australian public.

Absolutely pathetic customer service, unreachable by phone. Now you can't even stay on hold to wait for service, you have to keep ringing up. How the hell are you supposed to try and discuss matters that can't be dealt with online.

3.5 hour wait to speak to someone about an elderly customers pension to arrange a meeting, absolutely woeful

She gave me wrong information about my payment she needs to be trained beter i saw someone this morning around 12 or 12.30 28/8/23 not agood service at all i have seen other employees they're experienced and know what they talking about they gave me good information how centrelink works

First, is very hard to believe that this kind of service/issue happens still in Australia after so many people complain about about it. Unbelievable.
After my husband waited 1:40 Min in line to get through they asked me to authenticate my identity and after 8 questions they asked how much I pay in rental, and I said I don't pay rental since April instead I pay my mortgage. She said that the call has to ended as they couldn't identify the right person for the account as I couldn't tell how much I pay in rental. They asked us to go with identity in person to a centrelink station. And guess what? . You go there and they say that the family and child care department is only online or by the phone.
And the most frustrating part is that no matter what the problem is, you always have the same kind of frustration to get in touch and try to solve it. (if it is only by the phone how about to put much more people working on phone? Not everyone has spare hours to wait on phone.
And by the way what we are trying to solve is a problem that looks more like a scam as every single person I know has been telling the same. We are always owning money for this department, no matter how much you already pay per week.
Great way to collect money and not even them can explain why to charge what they charge. Failed of system.
If I could it would be 0 starts.
I still have my hope for this part to work well in Australia.

If I could leave a 0 star review I would. I have been trying to contact regarding my child’s CCS set up as she attended a new child care centre
I was on hold for 1 hour and 20 minutes thinking the lady on the other line had helped me.
I got another email from the centre saying that Centrelink had not yet fixed what they had to. I tried calling 6 times for hours only to say that they are busy to call back again. The call Would not let me speak to an operator either. Absolutely disgraceful!
Shortly after, I physically walked into a Centrelink centre only for the lady to say they have “no one” from family services working today. How hard could this be?
I am yet on the phone with Centrelink on hold for over an hour for a customer rep to do their job correctly and help me. This is absolutely disgusting. Hire some staff and do some proper training to resolve people’s issues. I am wasting hours of my day trying to sort this out!

I would give ZERO STARS if I could. BEEN WAITING 6 Months for Dad + Partner Pay. THANKS FOR NOTHING AND THANKS FOR LEAVING HARD WORKING AUSSIES OUTTA POCKET.

You can even talk to someone on the phone the system keep telling you that they are to busy then it hangs up, but you might have a pressing measure or be like my mother and not be able to leave the house. I've called Centrelink with small problems and they drive to yo depression and think why even both trying to go on. I would like to know how many people have committed suicide after trying to call Centrelink and the phone system just hanging up on you. They hold people 110% accountable for everything and they can even answer a phone to help you. If it was a public company no one would use it, but it's a NEEDED government department that causes mental harm to our elderly and disabled people.

Shoutout to Tanya at Portland VIC office.
Not only did she take the time to speak to me without an appointment, she also called me back as soon as the situation was resolved.
This happened after i waited over two hours for someone to pick up the phone, then was put on hold three times and then cut off altogether.
Tanya could see how stressed i was and was able to fix the problem in no time. So my five stars go to her..not the woman who answered the phone and clearly had no idea what she was doing.
Cheers Tanya.

I had been sent a debt from Centrelink 2 years back about a payment which was overpaid. I had clearly stated at the time to the representative "what is this payment for?" he replied "it's your childcare and family tax benefit money for the financial year". These payments usually come after you receive your tax return from the previous year. We all know that payments usually balance out between the 7th-15th of august which it was paid. Last year i had a call from a Centrelink representative claiming i owed money from the previous financial year. I had clearly stated why did you pay me that amount? knowing that I owe money. Then they continued pay me after your organization had seen my tax balanced which was paid 2 or 3 weeks prior to payment. They then continued to say that I didn't report the correct figures for the last EOFY 21-22. I than asked if that was the case "why did you pay me knowing that i didn't report correctly?". You're contacting me about a debt i had no idea about? If you contacted me as soon as you paid me this call would have never happened. Why would you freeze a debt and not tell anyone about? It sounded like the Centrelink organization was looking to scam people for money that owed that people had no idea about.. I have contacted multiple times in relation to this and all i had as a response is that we will freeze it for 6 months and get a case manager to get back to you in relation to this. 1 year and 6 months later still yet to receive a call from the Centrelink with clarification about my dispute. This is the 4th time i have tried to resolve this issue with this organization. Please call me asap and DO NOT deduct any money unless this issue is resolved. STOP SCAMMING people for money!

It's very hard to contact them. Phone options send you in circles and even when you can finally speak to an operator, you're told everyone is busy and "thanks for calling" before it hangs up. This is nothing new, but it's hard to believe it's still a problem.

It said average wait time was 50minutes I ended up waiting over 2 hours, didn’t help that the person over the phone when it got through was rude as hell.

Typical Centrelink….

The worst service I’ve ever had to deal with. Their customer service line never lets you speak to anyone, just hangs up on you. The robot on the phone has no idea what you’re saying when she’s asked you a simple question and got a simple answer. Services Australia make the entire process so difficult and lengthy as they pray you will give up so they don’t have to pay you. I’m 6 weeks on from surgery, I cannot walk, I cannot work. I haven’t received a cent and I am struggling to live. No help whatsoever.

Been on hold for 1 hr 40 mins and counting.
Was asked to call them in regards to cross data match considering I haven’t worked for 34 yrs and been on a pension for 30 yrs and then a carer pension for 14 yrs for my autistic son this is absolutely ridiculous.

The phone staff have a poor understanding of living in survivability circumstances. Often the office staff are also insufficient as enquiries also need to be sent to phone services. Too often I have had disappointment after disappointment and it is easier dealing with charities for any type of help.

Again, this system is broken. Centrelink treats you like a second class citizen because you're asking for help. Then fails to help you at all, but to rub salt into your wounds, they make it almost impossible to actually satisfy their requirements. I had broken collarbone ribs and smashed elbow from an accident and 6 months on, they've failed to help me financially. Not only that, they approve my claim and 36 hours later cancel it, leaving me to constantly call and wait extended hours to speak to someone who can't help me and can't be bothered finding someone who can. Just appalling, the whole service needs to be gutted and build again from scratch.

The service is worst of worst. They put you in a situation that either you withdraw you claim or simply shup your mouth until they contact. I am affraid there would be literally no one to answer the phone for 22 million+ people. They have created the automated answers and making people fool by simply hanging up.
What a shame.
Just approve the claim if all is good, why held it up and troubling civilians.

I was & still am attempting to get my disability pension approved. I applied
on line only to receive a message, my
application has been rejected, due to
not having 20 points, no explanation!!
Since then a friend explained l'd need
to download the Application Forms &
present them to a centrelink office.
At 66 my knowledge of I.T. is poor, not
to mention, if our over paid politicians
hadn't interfered with the retirement age I would be on a pension by now.
So I've had to asked my Wife to re -apply by way of downloading the forms. etc.etc. Not Too Hard My Wife Thought.. Well.. Let Me Say This, We
Have Just Finished The Run Around &
Paperwork!!! Hopefully we will be off
to centrelink come Monday with the
Repeated Paperwork in hand. I'm Not
Holding My Breath On the Decision.
To Make Matters Worse I Watched A
Show Last Night Where Centrelink &
Our Government Pressured Our Young Workers to Commit Suicide.
SO IT'S VERY CLEAR NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN THE SYSTEM THAT'S
BEEN PUT IN PLACE TO HELP &/OR
CARE FOR THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC
WHEN REQUIRED... NEED I SAY ANY MORE" ???

I have lived in several countries but have NEVER had to deal with such a dysfunctional, arrogant and uncaring bureaucratic organisation like Centrelink. Kafka would be proud of them. They are beyond belief. You go in their offices and wait in the queue so they can take your name, then you have to get in another queue to see the reception who tells you to go and take a seat and wait some more. When you finally see someone they admit that they do not know anything: they only issue and accept forms. They lie to your face. they encourage you to cheat the system and provide false information ("don't worry, who's going to know" (sic)).
Their website does not have a single email contact. tried to contact them many times via letter (never received response), via upload to MyGov (never received a response), call (they never got back to me).
We have to report asset and income changes within 14 days on MyGov. They then block further access until they "process" the change: it's been nearly 4 weeks and nobody had a look at it and access is still blocked. This is affecting my benefit which is getting impossible to understand because of the compounding late approvals. Nobody takes responsibility. SOMEONE MUST BE SACKED: LET'S START WITH THE CEO.

What a joke of an organisation. Without exaggeration, I've phoned 46 times (on the disability and carers number) over the last 7 business days. Each and EVERY time, the automated voice tells me there is too much of a wait, and hangs up on me. Even if I WANT to wait 5 hours for someone to pick up, it doesn't give me that opportunity.

I have a tricky non-standard enquiry, and the only option I'm given, other than "call back later" is to go via self-service, which I'd ordinarily be happy to do; but can't for this particular enquiry which is outide the box.

Getting over it, i thought i'd take a trip into a centre, only to find the B-team on, who had no clue as to the answer of my question.

Quite literally, given they don't have email support (hello....its 2023!) the only way I can get my question answered is to write a manual snail-mail letter, send it off, and wait for someone to get it and write back to me.

I would give anything for the gov't to privatise this service to an organisation that has to work with competition, shareholder value/expectations, and customer satisfaction.

I would be utterly embarrassed if i had to tell a friend or family member I worked at Centrelink.