Centrelink’s new service approach to 6.4 million customers

Centrelink is providing new and vastly improved information to its 6.4 million customers.

Information will now be packaged and presented according to a customer’s needs and not bureaucratic need.

I am releasing today a groundbreaking suite of information guides that provide a comprehensive overview of Centrelink services according to a customer’s need.

Customers will no longer have to search through a mass of brochures outlining the different bureaucratic details of individual payments, programs or services to find the ones that they might be eligible for. Customers will now get material written from their perspective and packaged into easy to read ‘life event’ brochures.

Some of the titles of the brochures include: Are you looking for work? Have you recently separated or divorced? Are you caring for someone who is frail aged, ill or has a disability? and Are you planning for or needing help in retirement?

The new information products will include 11 core booklets supported by a range of leaflets and factsheets dealing with specialist programs and services.

The development follows a review of Centrelink’s former information products and research undertaken with customers, community organisations and Centrelink staff. Post implementation review and research is planned in July and September.

This customer-friendly approach to information development is another step towards simplifying people’s dealings with government. Providing integrated information targetted to life events removes tremendous frustration for customers. Customers will no longer have to know the right question to get the right information.

Instead of a customer having to look at a payment like Newstart or the Aged Pension and asking ‘Am I eligible?’, they will now be presented with a comprehensive set of information for people who are looking for work or planning for retirement.

Centrelink’s important work directly benefits nearly a third of Australia’s population. Today’s announcement is another significant milestone in the way one of the world’s best social security systems is further improved.

Like the Centrelink website (www.centrelink.gov.au), all information products produced by Centrelink will now follow this new style of service delivery.