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Centrelink is an easy target for complaints but there are two sides to every story

26 February 2017
Paul Malone
SMH

Complainants range from ABC 7.30 Report presenter, Leigh Sales, to disability pensioners and victims of Centrelink's debt recovery operations.

But could it be that sometimes the agency is being unfairly castigated?

One of the hardest hitting criticisms came from blogger and writer Andie Fox in an article published in Fairfax media outlets on February 6.

She says she tried calling Centrelink during her lunch hour but "I would end up wandering the streets around work with the phone pressed to my ear, on hold, and be no further advanced in the phone queue by the end of the hour."

Eventually, she took a day off work to go into a Centrelink office.

But the media adviser for Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said that had she called the 1800 contact number on her debtor's letter she would in all probability have gone straight through.

I tried this number and low and behold, I got an instant answer.