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Carr hopes to ease Centrelink’s long wait

THE Department of Human Services will recruit extra call centre staff and use improved technology in an effort to tackle Centrelink’s increased waiting times.

Human Services Minister Senator Kim Carr says increased demand for Centrelink services has led to longer waiting times, and that the high demand is a result of changes in economic conditions, changes to the social security system, and the growing complexity of calls.

According to Senator Carr Centrelink currently takes about 150,000 calls a day – which adds up to about 38 million in the last financial year and is up seven million from 2005-06.

“I have asked the Department to redeploy staff to call centre activities to meet increased waiting times, and deal with peak demand,” he said.

“To deal with peak time this year Centrelink put on an additional 720 positions since March. I have now asked them to go further to address the unprecedented demand for assistance.”

Senator Carr says as well as increased staff, better technology and improved processes will improve services.

The proposed changes are in addition to the Department’s $474 million agreement with Telstra, one of the nation’s largest telecommunications deals in recent years.

“The new [telephone contract] will allow us to move staff to areas of greatest need more easily, and redirect telephone traffic as further measures to respond to peak demand periods,” he said.

Senator Carr says calls are answered in twelve minutes on average, with more than two-thirds answered within fifteen minutes. Eighty-eight per cent of callers rate the service “good” or “very good”.


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One Response to Carr hopes to ease Centrelink’s long wait

Alan ASHMORE says: 1 August 2012 at 6:48 pm

I am not surprised the Minister claims ‘Eighty-eight per cent of callers rate the service “good” or “very good”.’ Many are simply scared of Centrelink or fear retribution if they complain. It does happen I know and I have a defamation settlement from Centrelink to prove it.

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