Improving Centrelink’s service delivery

Centrelink’s 6.4 million customers and around 25,000 staff are set to benefit from changes currently being made to streamline and create specialist areas within the organisation, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Larry Anthony said today.

“Centrelink is one of the largest organisations in Australia. It will administer around
$60 billion this financial year and performs around 19 million transactions every working day. It delivers 140 payments and high quality support to the Australians in a diverse range of circumstances.

“Like any large organisation, it is important that there is an ongoing process of improvement. While Centrelink does a great job in often difficult circumstances, there are always things that can be done for customers and staff to further improve services.

“Centrelink is currently undertaking a process of consolidation of functions in their service delivery network to increase efficiency in processing customer information and further improve the quality of services.

“A number of complex functions such as debt servicing and compliance and review activities that have been performed by a large number of teams across the network will now be concentrated into specialist teams.

“An example of this is in the Debt Servicing Teams where thirteen areas will be consolidated to six areas or ‘Centres of Excellence’. This will lead to improvements in the quality and consistency of decisions made, particularly in complex cases.

“Centrelink’s customers will receive even better access to services, improvements in the quality of decision making, and greater efficiency in operations. There will be no changes to Centrelink’s local presence and the services available in Centrelink’s Customer Service Centres.

“It is also important to emphasise that no jobs will be lost. Staff will not be required to move from regional areas and where their functions change they will be given alternative duties in their current location.

“The Australian Government has made a priority of delivering quality services to the Australian community, wherever they live. It has been this Government that has done more than any other to increase services to all Australians, particularly those in rural, regional and remote areas.

“This restructure is a further demonstration of the Government’s commitment to ensuring high quality Centrelink services,” Mr Anthony said.