Centrelink needs to improve: Ombudsman

Some people are all too familiar with this infuriating problem - ring Centrelink, wait an hour to talk to a real person, only to be told to call another number.

Or, you could turn up at a Centrelink office, only to be directed to a phone in the waiting area to call the same number.

Then there's bill shock. Use a landline to call Centrelink and it's just the cost of a local call.

But in most cases the full cost of a mobile phone call to Centrelink goes on your bill, not great for those on low incomes.

How about this one.

A mother and her son went to a Centrelink office to inquire about youth allowance, only to be told to apply online, which only worked on their third try.

They were then told to take documents to the office, where they waited in a queue for 45 minutes, only to be told he didn't qualify anyway.

These are some of many complaints about Centrelink - 9600 between January 2012 and September 2013 - which prompted the Commonwealth Ombudsman to launch an inquiry into how Centrelink did its job. It examined 40 representative cases.

Centrelink is the service and payment delivery arm of the Department of Human Services, processing 2.8 million claims and paying out $116.1 billion in social security, pensions, allowances, benefits and other payments in 2012-13.

Ombudsman Colin Neave said most Centrelink services were delivered without problems but his office continued to receive a steady stream of complaints.

"And while admittedly few in comparison to Centrelink's total number of interactions with its customers, the number and nature of complaints suggest a gap between the agency's commitment to service delivery and the reality experienced by some customers," he said in a statement.

The range of complaints suggested a service which sometimes found it difficult to cope with demand, especially during peak times.

Centrelink undertook to do better and implement the Ombudsman's 12 recommendations to improve services.

The Ombudsman's report expected to see improvements.

"While we do not expect Centrelink to be error free, we would like more people to be able to sort out their problems with Centrelink without our involvement," the report said.