The latest figures show Services Australia including Centrelink and Medicare have unacceptable levels of unanswered calls, call wait times and back logs of claims adding to the long list of stressors families face on a daily basis. Women, who are more likely to manage the household, are often the ones accessing welfare and health services.
Inefficient social services have a significant impact on women living in regional, rural and remote Australia because they experience greater health and social adversities, such as unemployment, poorer health, disability, and poorer access to health, aged care and early learning and care services. For women in these locations, sometimes the phone is the only way to access these agencies due to the unavailability of stable internet connection and distance to Service Centres.
Indigenous women also experience other barriers such as paternalism, and biased and racist systems and practices. Many government services are yet to implement cultural safety measures to improve access.
Under pressure
Australian families are under pressure due to the high cost of living, rising accommodation costs, lack of housing, stagnant wages, and increases in utilities, food and childcare fees. In regional, rural and remote Australia, lack of early learning and care services means parents are unable to work the hours they wish to, or unable to work at all.
During a ‘cost of living’ crisis, more families need additional services. To explore the way the inefficiency of these services impact families, we examined recent publicly available data from Reddit forums about ‘Family Benefit,’ ‘Centrelink’, ‘Single Parenting’ and similar pages.
Unanswered calls
In 2023, Services Australia let a staggering seven million calls go unanswered. On the forums, many parents complain that they struggle when put on hold, with the ‘robot’ (automated messaging) hanging up on them. Others said they were on hold, then later disconnected. They said:
“I’d be stoked just to not get hung up on by the robot”.
“Four hours on hold … then they hung up on me. I couldn’t call back. Cried real tears that day I was so frustrated.”
The forums reveal the trouble users are having navigating their way to achieve the coveted ‘on hold’ status, rather than being disconnected by the ‘robot’. It must be unimaginably difficult to navigate for those from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds.
Call waiting times
Services Australia also reported call wait times have ballooned to over 45 minutes on average. Some say the best time to phone is at 8am, but for many women, this is their busiest time due to caring responsibilities. Parents reported:
“Called at 8 am, and the shit was sorted out at 5:45pm, … the worker eventually gave up and had his supervisor finish it”.
“Started call at … 9am, … on hold for 5 hours, … someone ….said they needed to put me on hold again, … waited another hour, then the call … ended. When I tell you I was irate, [that’s] not even the half of it”.
While these examples are extreme, many echoed similar experiences and even offered tips on how to steer through the end-user challenges. Female frontline workers, and those in the feminised care industry are often hardest hit because they are less likely to be able to stay on hold while at work.
Backlog of claims
Services Australia also admitted to a backlog of over 1.1 million claims. This makes it very difficult for women, who are often paid at a lower rate and therefore more likely to rely on assistance. One experienced claimant said:
“It takes months for claims to be assessed.”
Studies show women who cannot access their own funds are less likely to leave unsafe relationships. This increases the risk for women and children by deepening their exposure to trauma which has long-lasting effects.
Unacceptable
When we invest in supporting women and their families, make the systems user-friendly and stop wasting their time, they are able to flourish. When women living in regional, rural and remote communities flourish, the inequities experienced in those communities can start to be addressed, breaking cycles of intergenerational disadvantage.
The report card for Services Australia is unacceptable and we cannot accept such a low threshold of care for an agency that is responsible for atrocities like Robodebt. As one parent said, it is:
“Time to start contacting Members of Parliament”.
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Dr Marg Rogers is a Senior Lecturer of Early Childhood Education at the University of New England and a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Manna Institute that aims to improve the mental health of regional, rural and remote communities. She researches marginalised voices within these communities, specifically children and parents from military and veteran families, and early childhood educators.
Dr Cassy Dittman is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at CQUniversity, a Research Fellow with the Manna Institute, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Parenting and Family Support Centre at The University of Queensland. As a registered psychologist, her research focuses on understanding the role of parents and families in promoting optimal development and mental health in children and adolescents.
Dr Vicki Pascoe has over twenty years of experience in tertiary education, teaching in the fields of Indigenous Australian studies, Education, Sociology, Cultural Studies and Communications. Her research interests include Medical Education, Medical Dominance, and Bullying are of interest as well as decolonising curriculum in Higher Education. She is an early career researcher with the Manna Institute and a First Nations representative.
Professor Navjot Bhullar is a psychological scientist and mental health researcher in the School of Rural Medicine at Charles Sturt University. Navjot’s research seeks to understand vulnerabilities related to psychosocial and environmental factors, and how these are exacerbated by intersectionalities and affect mental health and wellbeing.