Thread: Centrelink, claiming the Aged Pension. Grrrrrrrrr!

Only been to Centrelink a couple of times,..just after I retired, to learn a few facts as to how current legislation & "rules" applied to me. A friend of ours who had recently been to centrelink suggested we talk to this particular person, who was very good, so we tried to speak to that person, who, after a lot of beaurocratic bull**** was allowed to speak to us.
However, the next time, our reference number was "referred", despite our preference to speak to our previous contact, to a different person, who had no ****ing idea. Luckily, at this stage, I was self supporting, but in view of what I experienced, I was, & am, eternally grateful that I do not have to have any asociation with them.
Pickles.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

I am of the opinion that for one to get a position in a Govt department be it State or Federal one has to fail the intelligence test,and the greater failure the higher grading in one's department,I have several family friends that are,or now retired Public Servants a few would be challenged to tie their shoe laces!

It really depends on what section they are in. My daughter works for CAV ( consumer affairs ). She is a bright and gifted person, and she gives her all to her position. My son in law is a highly placed member of the same department ( unrelated, not the same daughter if that makes sense ). They both hate the "public face" as much as we do. The "public face" is a deliberate action by Governments everywhere. It is despicable, but it's policy. My daughter could tie her shoelaces, and then yours, and make you a cup of coffee, and tell you why you are at fault, or not, with a supplier or service, before you sat down. She would then go on to tell you the specifics of the particular legislation, and advise you of the proper course of action, before you tasted the coffee. I'd be happy to introduce you to her. I'd suggest you do a little training first, or else you will be tied in knots.

Everyone has stories about their dealings with bureaucracy. It's a little tiresome to hear that ALL public servants are to be tarred with the same brush. It is also complete nonsense.

Originally Posted by johntins

It really depends on what section they are in. My daughter works for CAV ( consumer affairs ). She is a bright and gifted person, and she gives her all to her position. My son in law is a highly placed member of the same department ( unrelated, not the same daughter if that makes sense ). They both hate the "public face" as much as we do. The "public face" is a deliberate action by Governments everywhere. It is despicable, but it's policy. My daughter could tie her shoelaces, and then yours, and make you a cup of coffee, and tell you why you are at fault, or not, with a supplier or service, before you sat down. She would then go on to tell you the specifics of the particular legislation, and advise you of the proper course of action, before you tasted the coffee. I'd be happy to introduce you to her. I'd suggest you do a little training first, or else you will be tied in knots.

Everyone has stories about their dealings with bureaucracy. It's a little tiresome to hear that ALL public servants are to be tarred with the same brush. It is also complete nonsense.

I've had dealings with consumer affairs. My early dealings weren't very helpful. I had paid for a job that wasn't completed or rather my father paid on my behalf. The tradie refused to come back and complete the job. Oh, he got more cash out of my father than he quoted. Consumer affairs couldn't do anything about it.
Lesson learnt. The next tradie who didn't finish the job got told "Cash on completion." Management of the company got told the same when they called me. The fellow they sent to negotiate settlement got told same story and was shown the unfinished work. The tradie that turned up to finish the job got paid.

Then, some years later, a second call to consumer affairs. Someone left some fertiliser in my driveway and demanded payment. They got their debt collectors on to me. I sent off registered letters to the company and their debt collectors worded in the way the nice girl from consumer affairs (your daughter possibly, John) suggested and the problem went away. As it turns out, the fertiliser company delivered the neighbours fertiliser to the wrong address as the sales people had mistyped the house number. I found this out when relating the story to the neighbour. She told me her fertiliser order from that company never arrived.

Anyway, consumer affairs were very helpful AND, although they were unable to answer my call, they did call back.

Yep, don't lump them in the same apple barrel as Centrelink.

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

I've had dealings with consumer affairs. My early dealings weren't very helpful. I had paid for a job that wasn't completed or rather my father paid on my behalf. The tradie refused to come back and complete the job. Oh, he got more cash out of my father than he quoted. Consumer affairs couldn't do anything about it.
Lesson learnt. The next tradie who didn't finish the job got told "Cash on completion." Management of the company got told the same when they called me. The fellow they sent to negotiate settlement got told same story and was shown the unfinished work. The tradie that turned up to finish the job got paid.

Then, some years later, a second call to consumer affairs. Someone left some fertiliser in my driveway and demanded payment. They got their debt collectors on to me. I sent off registered letters to the company and their debt collectors worded in the way the nice girl from consumer affairs (your daughter possibly, John) suggested and the problem went away. As it turns out, the fertiliser company delivered the neighbours fertiliser to the wrong address as the sales people had mistyped the house number. I found this out when relating the story to the neighbour. She told me her fertiliser order from that company never arrived.

Anyway, consumer affairs were very helpful AND, although they were unable to answer my call, they did call back.

Yep, don't lump them in the same apple barrel as Centrelink.

CAV would probably have helped with a VCAT application. But you won't always get a good CAV operator either. The one thing I have learned is to document every call, every conversation, noting the time, the name of the person you are dealing with, and the time on the call. You can get a bit more serious, and ask for their specific ID, which they can't refuse to give you. Tell them you are doing this. They record calls. If you have details as I've said, it helps them to go back and find the call. Don't get you hopes up though, as the recordings will NEVER be used in your defence, but they won't be used against you either. They simply help to get the one hundredth person you speak to on the same page. It is NOT the fault of the person you happen to have come through to on your latest call. It is the fault of the system you have found yourself in. I would say, think carefully about how you vote, but I truly doubt that it makes any difference, apart from the numbers of bureaucrats employed.

Oh, Mick? If you got a nice girl, it probably wasn't Jem.

Lol. Not true, she's priceless. But I pity anyone who takes her on. Verbally or physically. We call it "Terminator Mode", and it ain't pretty. She'll probably wind up Premier. I sincerely hope I'm not here to see it.

Originally Posted by Shortie

Had similiar issues when I helped a friend complete his form a few years ago, the only good thing was they back paid him from the inital date of application.
It is all different now, they like everything to be done on the stupid MyGov website and not by telephone or in person - if you check any correspondence from them you will note there are no longer any telephone numbers listed.

Regional office phone numbers have not been publicised since the first tele-service centres opened over 20 years ago. The idea of the centres was to take the telephone workload away from the processing staff in the offices. You will usually find a local number on a letter from the regional office so you can contact the author. Centrelink management are cunning and change the numbers every couple of years to frustrate and confound those clients who zealously record and guard a local number to avoid tele-service phone queues.

About to get worse with our very astute government about to give a large chunk of Centrelink to SERCO to run. I am sure they will be great, just look at their detention centre and prisoner transport record.

Originally Posted by 87County

Unfortunately fats, applicants are not treated that way anymore, and the staff who were good at their work back then (public servants) have mostly been cashiered.

I don't think it will be long until our northern neighbours with fictitious first names like Nathan and Bruce will be answering the centrelink phones

Unfortunately, my earlier prediction about subcontracted phone answering for CL has come true

There is a good fictional account of this , a movie called I Daniel .Blake.