Good Luck Ever Getting Through To Centrelink On The Phone


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The latest call waiting times are out for Centrelink today, and the figures are shocking, but not surprising.

Callers attempting to get through to Centrelink have been met with busy signals more than 42 million times over just a 10 month period, logged between July 1 2016 and April 30 this year.

The massive figure equates to almost 140,000 unanswered calls per day, and double the number missed just two years earlier.

For those who do get through to the welfare agency, they'll wait an average of 15 minutes on hold.

The longest wait on hold is for people calling Centrelink's "participation" line. They're kept listening to music for an average of 38 minutes, while those calling for employment or youth and student services are giving up half an hour on the phone waiting to speak with someone.

Most interesting though, the debt recovery line takes just 3 minutes for staff to answer.

Centrelink says it's hiring an extra 250 phone operators to help get through the growing number of missed calls and cut wait times.

1 June 2017




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