The head of the agency tasked with delivering crucial government services says it has "turned the corner", with call wait times for Centrelink falling, and less people being cut off.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
David Hazlehurst, Services Australia's CEO, has acknowledged call wait times at the agency had blown out, forcing people trying to access social security and welfare services to wait an average of 33 minutes between July and December 2023.
But Mr Hazlehurst told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday that the injection of thousands of additional staff had improved matters, as he tabled a 366-page document breaking down data requested by Coalition senators.
The document shows that wait times for Centrelink were down to an average of 28 minutes in the first quarter of 2024, though Mr Hazlehurst said the average for May had fallen to 25 minutes ("depending on daily demand").
"Importantly, our use of congestion messaging has halved since January," he said.
In an interview with The Canberra Times in May, Mr Hazlehurst said the agency was aiming to bring it down to 15 minutes.
Congestion messages are activated during peak demand, when customers can't get through to speak to staff.
Between July and December 2023, the agency had issued 7.4 million congestion messages across Centrelink services, while that figure was 4.8 million for January to May 2024.
But call wait times for Medicare services have increased - up from 23 minutes as of December 2023, to 27 minutes in the latest data drop.
The percentage of social security and welfare recipients who waited more than an hour to reach someone has dropped slightly, down from 22.6 per cent to 19.5 per cent.
A backlog of claims for services, which had peaked at 1.35 million in February, has been slashed by 743,000, bringing it down to 607,000.
In November 2023, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten announced funding for 3000 additional staff to address pressures on the agency.
The May federal budget also included $1.8 billion in funding for these positions and others up until the 2025-26 financial year.
"We have turned the corner, but we're far from declaring victory," Mr Hazlehurst told senators.
"We know we have more to do on processing and call waiting times."