Centrelink Reviews 

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.

Was let go from work, no redundancy awaiting. Decided to complete short TAFE course for career change. Have been waiting for jobseeker since the Beginning of March. It is now June.

Request sent to me by my gov to update my study details. Followed online tutorial on how to. Reached a screen supposed to have an edit function. No edit function available. Called Centrelink and they were baffled. Their end shows a edit function. My end does not. Mystery never solved. Solution. To discuss with Austudy rep. Transfer me to them. Have been on hold for over and hour already. Pretty clear that I was never transferred. In limbo. Waiting for a rep that will never answer. Completely forgotten about. Will finally have to make the trip to the nearest Centrelink in a town 41kms away. They will probably tell me that Centrelink online is filled with glitches. No kidding. Could have saved myself a load of time and just travelled the 41 kms in the first place. All this is purposely designed to make things difficult. To throw people off. The terrible hold music is designed to make you finally give up and go back to their glitch ridden hopeless self serve set up. Yep still holding on limbo land phone hold. Check next week same time...will still be holding.

This would have to be the worst service in Australia, it's disgraceful, there a people on disability and old people who have to wait up to 3 hrs on hold , and yet when you go into centre rhey tell you to do it online or call them ,put more people on instead of laying people off , F#cking disgrace, you got homeless people no wonder why people of of when they talk with them , how many times has Centrelink been on current affairs about there disgraceful service!

Just waited on the phone for over an hour and was told by the operator that she WONT not CANT tell me how much Jobseeker pays. I was told to get online and find it myself. I thought this service was a Goverment funded Welfare system. If this is the way you treat people in need of welfare then any wonder people are opting for suicide due to financial hardship stress. I have worked my whole life and paid my taxes and do not appreciate being treated second rate to a receptionist. I agree the service people do not deserve to be spoken to rudely, but that should go both ways. Retrain your people to have at least a little bit of empathy and compassion for people struggling. We have a right to information from a human aswell as the internet.

Terribly slow processing JobSeeker payments. After being made redundant, with no payout and still owed money, 6 weeks later still waiting for application to be processed. I’ve called and made a complaint which achieved nothing. So no money. No income. For the first time in 12 years I am living in near poverty. Centrelink don’t care.

Been waiting on the phone for an hour! Listening to appalling 'head banging' hold music - and this for a number that is supposed to be for older Australian!
Aweful service

I have been to Centre Link in Armadale and customer service is very helpful and lodge my claim in a professional manner’s, my first visit to Centre link in 40 years of my stay in Australia. The service i received was above and beyond. Five Star . Keep up the good work.

Hopefully Albo will clean up the detritus here.

Great Customer Service from Kali at Warragul branch. Very pleasant Staff at this branch.

when the service really relies on dismissing you and pushing you away you know they dont care about you and ultimately try their best to not provide you with a service that they're supposed to. if the # is getting heavy traffic instead of making you wait or giving you a unique ticket, they just hang up.

A near hour wait, for a person that doesn't understand the language and is hard to understand, that made it sound like my calling to update details for my mum was a bother to him. Disgraceful, I'm glad I rarely have to deal with the public service, and hopefully will never again.