LPT: if anybody needs to but can’t get through to Centrelink, go into one of the services Australia branch. If they can’t fix your problem, they’ll connect you to an internal number which doesn’t just hang up on you.
It’s fucking disgraceful that they don’t even answer the phone anymore. Seriously one of the stupidest things they’ve rolled out. There’s no ifs or buts about it, it’s disgusting and needs to stop.
You can also try calling the complaints number and they can do the same thing as the branch people, but I’ve heard conflicting reports about this. It used to be how you had to get through, but I’ve heard recently that sometimes that number just hangs up on you too. But if they do answer, they’ll will usually just put you through to a non hanging up number, at least if it means you won’t make them do the paperwork to lodge a complaint.
Also, when you do get through, please try to remember that they’re just minimum wage people doing a shitty job. They don’t make the phones hang up on you, and they aren’t the reason your claims take months to process, or you were underpaid, or whatever’s gone wrong. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. You can express your annoyance to them, but abusing or yelling at them doesn’t fix the problem, and won’t make them answer quicker.
If you really want somebody to yell at, write a letter or email to your local MP. Or the minister for social services. Or anyone else who’s penny pinching tactics caused this whole mess
Also remember you’ll get through this soon, even though it doesn’t feel like it in the moment
You can also ask for a supervisor if you’re having a communication problem with the first person you speak to. Centrelink staff don’t know anything about your personal circumstances beyond what it says on their screen, which can be incorrect or just using department terminology that means something different to what it sounds like at face value. For example, depending on how long you’ve been submitting medical certificates due to a temporary mental illness, they may start rejecting them and referring to your mental illness as “permanent”. They will try to tell you that medical records you’ve submitted indicate that you have a permanent disability, even if you’ve never submitted any medical records or testimony that suggest this. In this kind of situation it can be helpful to get a supervisor to clearly explain how their internal system works and why you have been moved to what they call the “permanent” stream, instead of just getting these out of context brick wall responses of “well on this date you told us you had a permanent disability” that make absolutely zero sense.
Perhaps there was a better way to phrase it, but I meant that their job is shitty, not that they themselves do shitty (quality) work
I wasn’t disagreeing with anything you said, though I have witnessed Centrelink staff putting a minimum amount of effort in when dealing with clients over the phone. Just sharing information that may help others get something out of a phone call that seems like it’s going nowhere.
The system is designed to drive people over the edge, so the workers cop the simmering frustration in the face every time someone does get through, which completely disengages them, causes them to put in minimal effort and thus drives more people over the edge as they’re mishandled.
Fucking machiavelli is creaming his goddamn jeans rn
Particularly when it comes to JobSeeker. The entire system is just filled with these arbitrary hoops and roadblocks designed to make people give up instead of actually helping them find work they are capable of keeping long-term. All the while you have the rest of the population, from major party politicians to the general public, who are fortunate enough to have never been in a position to deal with this system, dictating a completely fictitious narrative to the people who have lived experience with it. To be honest, I try not to dwell on it too much because the whole thing is sickeningly evil.
My mum was hit by a car while she was riding her bike when she was young, and growing up as a young girl in the 70s, she was told there was nothing wrong with her and wasn’t taken to a hospital or doctor for many weeks. She ended up suffering debilitating injuries to her back and hips, and by the time I was born when she was in her 30s, she couldn’t work. I remember quite distinctly that I was with her when she had to go into Centrelink, and they told her that she could not be classed as disabled because if she got a hip replacement, she’d probably be able to work again. So she stayed on Newstart, and whatever Newstart was before it was called Newstart.
Every week she had to go into those stupid job agency network things for a whopping 5 minutes so they could ask her if she had any changes in circumstance and then “sorry, no jobs for you. Come back next week”.
Obviously the thing about not being classed as not disabled/unable to work was probably BS, or at least misleading, but she didn’t know how to navigate the system, so she just did the best she could, hobbling down to the job agency every week and reporting “I have not earnt any income” to Centrelink every fortnight.
The people running that shitshow are scumbags. They know what they’re doing. That’s kind of what happens when you put people with a “fuckin lazy bludgers want to get paid for doing nothing sitting on their arses all days, while I’m out here doing REAL work” mentality in charge of the system.
My mum has her own problems, and didn’t always handle things very well, but as I’ve gotten older and had to deal with more aspects of the system myself, I understand why people get burnt out, give up, and can’t muster up the energy or time to fight the system on every single thing they need to do to survive
Fair enough, my apologies. It seemed like you interpreted my line referring to them as people making minimum wage doing shitty work as accusing the staff of always doing shitty work.
Nah not at all, the majority of the conversations I’ve had or witnessed with Centrelink staff have been positive ones.
Me too