The push to automate Centrelink services is causing mental stress and burdening the community sector, a new report says.
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Anglicare Australia has released the report - Paying the price of welfare reform - which studied the impact of Centrelink automation on Anglicare staff and clients.
"Our research found that people are falling through the cracks as Centrelink services become more and more automated," Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said.
"It is becoming harder to talk to a human being."
She said staff in Centrelink service centres directed people to phones and computers, rather than offering help, while at the same time people reported spending hours waiting on the phone only to get cut off.
"Centrelink might believe that it's saving time and money, but what it's really doing is shifting the burden onto its clients and the services that help them," Ms Chambers said.
Two-thirds of Anglicare's workers said the automated processes increased the amount of support clients needed because they were stressed and anxious.
The research was conducted across southern Queensland, Tasmania and WA.
While Centrelink says the average waiting time for employment hotlines is 30 minutes, Anglicare clients reported waiting on the phone for hours with high rates of rates of disconnection and abandonment.
Centrelink data from the past year showed 33 million calls went unanswered and 55 million callers got an engaged signal.
The study found over a period of a fortnight, regional Anglicare organisations spent the equivalent of almost seven full-time jobs dealing just with Centrelink issues, wasting more than $400,000 a year.
The report recommended more resources for Centrelink, better assistance pathways for people who have low literacy or disabilities and a commitment to taking on board client suggestions for improvement.
Australian Associated Press
