Centrelink screw up again

Centrelink, the nations leading (and only) Commonwealth Government family support department have yet again placed us under a review.

The previous review, from the exact same department, resulted in them apologising for the error of their ways, after some 5 months of constant contact proved the decision made was incorrect.

This time around, I decided to place my valuable time on the line.

I raised the single issue to the staff member upon answering the call that, any calls, any faxes, and my time would be billed to Centrelink as a direct result of their incompetence in checking records thoroughly.

You see, the previous issue that was raised was after some 5 months, was removed, after the consultant realised that she had made a fundamental stuff up, and wasted a lot of time and resources.

This time around, I’m prepared, I’m going in armed, and if the result isn’t the same, or the contact goes on for more than the initial contact to inform them of their stuff up, I’ll be billing them.

I got better things to do with my time than deal with an incompetent government department that can’t get its own records right first time.

We have been the subject of several “reviews”, and successful.

I’m sick of the “reviews”, we do our best to ensure information they have is the information expected, and we ensure that they have no need to raise reviews.

The whole purpose is a waste of time.

The possible explanation for it all is that they can’t seem to get their head around the issue that not all young people are on their lists to scam them.

Centrelink, another government department, that can’t get its records right. The list can extend towards the RTA, getting speed cameras incorrect, TAFE NSW (and I don’t really want to go in detail here, but they are far from the medicare of the industry).

Medicare are the department that seem to not cause issues for anyone. You get the card, you use it when you have to, you visit them when you need to, and a lot of the time, the data they have is correct.

Why is it that such detailed departments, such as Centrelink and the RTA can’t maintain accurate customer records? It’s not rocket science. Slap together an SQL database, and all is identified by “ID”, and that means all entries visible at any point in time.

The processes they have are flawed, and the costs of these “reviews”, and the staff that do them shouldn’t be something any taxpayer should be supporting. The postage, phone calls, faxes, and staff time are all a joke. A big Commonwealth Government joke.

I doubt the people that should be subject to reviews are not causing the biggest dints in their budget, surely. But that’s not saying it’s perfectly acceptable either.

Hopefully this time it comes to a quick close, and we can both just leave each other alone. I really don’t want to be making friends with the reviews team.

Incompetence, we really shouldn’t tolerate it.