Earlier this year, the Federal Government employed 3,000 additional staff in response to public outrage at the worsening time it took Services Australia (Centrelink and Medicare) to answer phone calls and process claims. 

News media reports sheeted the blame back to deteriorating staff morale and workplace culture, reduced staffing numbers, and antiquated systems.  

Early this year, there was a backlog of more than 1.1 million claims to Centrelink and Medicare, while the average wait-time to speak to an operator was more than 45 minutes. Many customers said they faced call wait times of up to four hours. 

Even the Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, conceded “Australians have been let down historically”.  

Services Australia said in a statement that it managed around one million phone contacts and 10 million customer interactions a week – 90% of which were digital. 

"We encourage anyone who needs to speak to us to try again – people are getting through and our staff are working hard to answer calls," it said. 

It was also revealed that of the 41 million calls made to the agency during that period, nine million received congestion messages — an automated system Service Australia activates during periods of high call volumes which directs a caller to use online services before ending the call. 

Those 3,000 recruits – about 10% of the department’s workforce – have now been trained and are hitting the phones and digital communications. 

These new staff have now processed 1.4 million claims and answered 1.9 million calls and, according to the government, have begun winding back wait time. 

“Hundreds of thousands of Australians are having their Centrelink and Medicare claims processed faster, with wait times slashed across the board,” a government statement announced.  

Services Australia says it has slashed outstanding Medicare and Centrelink claims by 66% at 21 July, from 1.35 million in early February, down to a regular number of around 460,000. 

“With the backlog cleared, this means from now on most claims will be processed within reasonable time frames,” the department said. 

Average claim processing times have improved across most payments in the new financial year compared to last, including: 

• 84% lower for Paid Parental Leave claims (25 days down to four days) 
• 84% lower for Medicare newborn enrolments (25 days down to four days) 
• 82% lower for Medicare Online Account claims (11 days down to two days) 
• 73% lower for JobSeeker claims (22 days down to six days).

As of 21 July, the agency: 

• Was answering Centrelink calls around six minutes faster and Medicare customer calls nine minutes faster than in January 
• Had cut congestion messaging on Centrelink lines by 58% compared to January 
• Was serving most customers (62%) in 15 minutes at 318 service centres across Australia. 

Mr Shorten welcomed the results, saying, “In turning the corner to the new financial year, there is marked improvement in processing times on not only last year, but also when comparing performance back to 2018 in pre-COVID times. 

“I know Australians are doing it tough and I’ve asked Services Australia to work hard to reduce its claim processing and call wait times. 

“There’s more to do, particularly in processing complex claims, but we’re making significant inroads across the board.” 

The government committed $1.8 billion in the 2024-25 Budget to bolstering service delivery, which includes funding for 4,030 staff in 2024-25 and 3,530 staff in 2025-26. 

Related reading: ABC, SBS, DSS, Services Australia