Centrelink promise

Last year, Centrelink made the promise to reduce their phone call waiting times in 2018.

They put on 250 extra staff to make it happen – so A Current Affair decided to put them to the test.

Statement from Centrelink

• The key objective of this project is to bolster the department’s call centre capacity to make it easier for Australians to access Centrelink services.
• It’s one of a number of strategies we’re deploying to address call wait times and busy signals.
• The Government is also working hard to reduce the need for people to call in the first place, including through improvements to digital services, website capability and processing times.
• The project commenced in late October last year and the department is assessing the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the pilot program in answering thousands of calls per day.