Are you being locked out of your MyGov or Centrelink account? You’re not alone

It’s the website that’s supposed to save us time and keep resources low in branches, but it’d be nice if it worked. Since launching, the MyGov website (which combines Centrelink, Medicare, DVA, ATO and MyAgedCare) has been plagued with problems. And despite more and more complaints, the government denies anything is wrong with the system.

Clients have reported being blocked out from the system for up to two weeks, or are being repeatedly locked out even though they’re entering details correctly.

The Age reports that late last month, call centre operators told callers that a software problem had locked large numbers of users out of their MyGov accounts and that clients would have to wait 12 hours before they could log back onto the system.

But it still has not been fixed and is leading to even more frustration. When you go in to any of these government agencies, you’re turned away. Then you go online and you’re turned away once more.

MyTax has also come under fire in recent weeks because of its inability to do the one thing it’s meant to: help you lodge your tax return.

Fairfax has source that has said MyGov cannot deal with the sheer volume of users, which is odd because you’d think that almost every person in Australia should be able to use the site.

A DHS spokesman said that there were no problems. “As we announced in the first week of July, the intermittent issues impacting some users trying to access the MyGov service and associated Centrelink online functions occurred from 1 to 3 July and have been resolved and were not related to capacity constraints.
“The issues were quickly investigated and were resolved by adjusting our server routing algorithm.

“There are no software issues with MyGov that result in accounts being unintentionally locked.

“The system automatically locks accounts when there are nine unsuccessful login attempts in a row.

“This is a standard feature that has been built into the system in order to protect customer’s privacy and security,” the spokesperson said.

Tell us, have you been experiencing issues with your MyGov account?