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Delcie Rimes

Submission: 

I have worked for this Department for 25 years & this is the worse state I have seen it in.
We do not have enough fully trained staff to process the claims of our most vulnerable people in our society.
The amount of incorrect information that goes out to the public is staggering & this impacts on people missing out on their entitlement.
We need to improve our technical training for staff and we need more staff to process the work. Otherwise it goes round in circles - claim lodged - not processed in a timely matter - multiple trips to the CSC - staff unable to assist or resolve - complaints feed up the line; and this goes on or months.
This week I have dealt with 3 Youth Allowance customers whose claims were lodged in Feb 18 that are still not processed; Special Benefit 3 monthly reviews not processed which result in payment cancellation- these people often have no family support in Australia & limited English & there is nothing we can do for them at the CSC; Age pension claims that are twelve sometimes 18 months old - think about the number of times these people attend our offices to find out what is happening.
If we had enough fully trained staff, work would be processed in time resulting in less traffic to our CSC's & call centres and less complaints & ministerial.
We should not be a privatised organisation as we on the coal face already see the impact of inadequately trained Serco/labour force staff providing wrong information or being unable to assist customers due to their lack of knowledge then referring back to us which is no saving at all. The public need a stable, knowledgeable, workforce who can do the work in a timely manner. Not overseas multi nationals who take their profits overseas & pay their staff low wages & poor conditions.