Expanded hours for Centrelink Families Call Centre

The Federal Minister for Community Services, Larry Anthony, today announced Centrelink’s Families Call Centre would now be open in the evenings to give families better access to Centrelink services.

Mr Anthony said Centrelink’s Call Centre for families will now be open 12 hours a day from 8am to 8pm, between Monday and Friday.

“Families who receive family and childcare payments will now have access to a full range of services until 8pm in the evening every Monday to Friday,” Mr Anthony said.

Mr Anthony said parents often found it hard to access government services during business hours when both of them work.

“Both the Government and Centrelink realise that families don’t operate inside normal business hours and that services need to be tailored to give them greater access to services such as Family and Childcare payments,” he said.

Mr Anthony said the expanded service will be run out of the Bunbury Call Centre in West Australia and the Traralgon and Ballarat Call Centres in Victoria.

“Around 111 permanent part-time staff and 26 temporary staff have been employed to provide this extended service,” Mr Anthony said.

“This means more jobs for the regional communities of Bunbury, Traralgon and Ballarat,” Mr Anthony said.

“Centrelink will be monitoring the success of the expanded services to see if it is suitable to expand to other call centre lines.”

Customers can contact Centrelink about family payments on 13 1305 and child care payments on 13 1524.