ALMOST 27,000 Centrelink clients will need to travel further to access face-to-face services when the Braddon Centrelink shopfront closes in December, says member for Canberra Alicia Payne. 

The MP has been campaigning to save the shopfront after learning there will be no replacement service in the inner north and thousands of existing users will be forced to travel to travel to Belconnen, Woden or Gungahlin to access face-to-face services.

Services Australia claimed the closure was because of 40 per cent decline in customer demand in Braddon since 2016, as a result of demographic changes in the area.

But, under questioning ACT Senator Katy Gallagher on Thursday, Services Australia admitted more than 27,000 “customers” still use the centre each year.

“It is disappointing the department did not even bother conducting community consultation around this or consider what the closure means for the thousands of people who use the Braddon shopfront,” says Ms Payne.

She says it will make life harder for vulnerable Canberrans, job seekers, pensioners, carers, people with disability and students.

“Some of Centrelink’s own conditions require customers to come into a face-to-face shop front so it can’t be replaced entirely by online services,” she says.

“There are people who are homeless who don’t have a computer or a smartphone, let alone an address, or women fleeing domestic violence, who need to just go and speak to someone who might not want to be at home on a computer looking into these things.”

Ms Payne urged Canberrans to keep signing her petition to show the Morrison government how important this service is for Canberrans.

More than 1400 people have signed her petition so far.

The petition can be signed at aliciapayne.com.au/save-braddon-centrelink/

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