Centrelink is experiencing a significant blowout in wait times for claims, with 27 out of 32 payment types including jobseeker experiencing a sharp increase in processing time since Labor came to power.
On Wednesday Guardian Australia reported a similar trend in call wait times, with data tabled in Senate estimates revealing only 23% of calls to Centrelink were answered in July and August, compared with 35% over the 2022-23 financial year.
New documents tabled in Senate estimates on Thursday revealed the majority of payment processing times had fallen below their new “timeliness standard” – targets set by Services Australia and its partner agencies.
The jobseeker payment, which is meant to have a “timeliness standard” of 16 days, hit an average processing time of 29 days in August, up from nine days in the 2021-22 financial year and 11 days across 2022-23.
A claim for the age pension is meant to be processed in 49 days but in August the average payment took 61 days, up from 33 days in 2022-23 and 35 days in 2021-22.
The parenting payment, which is meant to be processed in 21 days, averaged 16 days in 2021-22 and 2022-23 but had blown out to 45 days in August.
The additional childcare subsidy transition to work payment was taking the longest time to process at 98 days in August, up from 39 days on average in 2022-23 and 45 days the year before.
Of the 32 payment types managed by Services Australia that there is data for, only five saw a drop in processing times after Labor took over government from the Coalition.
In September, 118,255 (32.5%) of claims were greater than eight weeks old and 16,399 (4.5%) of claims were greater than four months old, data given to Guardian Australia shows.
The general manager of Services Australia, Hank Jongen, said the department processed millions of claims a year, working as quickly as possible.
In the 2022-23 financial year, Centrelink processed 3.6m Centrelink claims, with the average wait time sitting at 27 days in September.
“We apologise to anyone who is waiting longer than they should be, and we remind our customers to let us know if they are in hardship to help us prioritise claims from those most in need,” Jongen said.
“Our staffing has returned to more regular levels now that pandemic-era work, and associated extra staff, has concluded. We are doing our best to meet demands within this resourcing.”
The Greens spokesperson for social services, Senator Janet Rice, said “Services Australia under the Labor government is failing people on Centrelink.
“When I questioned Services Australia officials in estimates this week about why the customer call wait times were so high, they said one reason was because they had redeployed staff away from calls to process claims more quickly, but these figures show they’re not improving claim times either. In fact, like everywhere else, it’s getting worse.
“It’s clear that Services Australia is woefully under-resourced. Labor must budget for more staff and drastically improve this system that is supposed to be a social service that Australians can rely on.”
The minister for government services, Bill Shorten, was contacted for comment.
The spokesperson for income support at the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, Catherine Caine, said the wait times were “hell” for people on welfare.
“Imagine you’re going through some life-altering stress and you haven’t received any updates about the payment you need to survive,” she said. “You try to call and find out but the phone call never connects. And this goes on for months and months.
“The Labor government needs to stop payment suspensions, free up their staff, and focus on reducing application and call times. This system is crumbling and those on income support are being forced to bear the brunt.”
