Use emergency measures to fix Centrelink now

Bill Shorten, Minister for Government Services; Tony Burke, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

With a backlog of 1.1 million claims, and up to 50% of calls going unanswered, the crisis at Centrelink requires immediate government intervention. All processes that are needlessly choking the system must be suspended, to free up resources, get through the backlog and service people properly.

Sign this petition to demand the immediate suspension of Mutual Obligations and debt recovery, and the reinstatement of COVID-era changes to asset tests, waiting periods and eligibility tests.

To: Bill Shorten, Minister for Government Services; Tony Burke, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
From: [Your Name]

Dear Ministers Shorten and Burke,

We are the people who’ve had our Centrelink calls blocked. The people who are calling over and over, waiting hours and days to get through to an operator. The people waiting months for our claims to be processed. The people who have, once again, been left behind by this government.

We have had enough.

While we can’t access services at all, your government is wasting vital resources administering mutual obligation punishments and chasing down Centrelink recipients over debts.

Hence, we call for the immediate suspension of Mutual Obligations and all Centrelink debt recovery processes.

In response to Covid-19, the government made a bunch of temporary changes to speed up claims processing – waiving the assets test, the ordinary waiting period, and no longer requiring Employment Separation Certificates, proof of rental arrangements or the verification of a person’s relationship status. These eligibility hoops and tests are choking the system and must be suspended.

The current state of Centrelink’s “service” is obscene: 1.1 million unprocessed claims. Half of all calls going unanswered. People waiting over 6 months for their payments and pensions.

Worse still, your government knew that this crisis was coming. Department modelling, back in 2020 predicted it. This was revealed in Estimates this month, with Services Australia’s Deputy CEO saying that he knew the agency didn’t have the budget to ensure people were properly serviced.

Six months ago, the ANAO also released a damning assessment on the timeliness of payments.

You knew our lives were about to be pummelled by Centrelink, and chose not to act.

Now, after the fact, you’ve decided to add some new staff to try to stem the bleeding (and evade some bad PR). We know, as well as you do, this is nowhere near enough to dig the agency out of its massive hole. It is too little, too late.

While these new staff get onboarded, our lives continue to be jeopardised by Centrelink every single day.

We the undersigned demand the immediate suspension of mutual obligations and debt recovery, and the reinstatement of COVID-era changes to asset tests, waiting periods and eligibility tests.