If you’ve ever called Centrelink only to receive an engaged dial tone at the end of the line, don’t worry, you’re just one of 42 million other callers.
According to figures released during a Senate hearing, a whopping 42 million people have received the engaged signal when trying to contact Centrelink in the past financial year.
The number has increased from 29 million in the 2015-16 financial year, and 22 million the year before that.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert told the ABC the Centrelink system is “broken”.
“This is an astronomical number representing Australians trying to access supports, adjust their payments, seek information or update their earnings,” she said.
“That is a lot of frustrated people who may be exasperated and struggling.”
Centrelink has been plagued with bad press over the past year due to its bungled robo-debt letters that saw thousands of Australians told to pay back money they did not owe.
However, The Department of Human Services told the ABC they believe the increase in engaged signal calls is because people are repeatedly trying to call back over a short period of time.
Chief information officer Gary Sterrenberg said the department believes it’s reasonable for someone to call back again within a few minutes, but that it’s not fair for them to try calling “thousands of times a day”.
The department has steadily cut down on 5,000 staff members over the past six years, which is thought to be contributing to the high number of call wait and engaged signals.