Adele McIntosh-Jackson first applied for the age pension in August last year but still hasn’t had her claim approved and now unable to work, has no income at all.

Ms McIntosh-Jackson had been working but was hoping to reduce her hours when she first applied for a partial age pension in August 2023.

However the situation became urgent when she fell and broke her ankle in December last year, leaving her unable to work at all since.

“Over the last seven weeks, I’ve had no income whatsoever,” she told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth.

“I still have a mortgage and strata fees, and I still have electricity bills and all sorts of things.

Ms McIntosh-Jackson has been told that it’s because she works as an independent sub-contractor, rather than an employee, that is causing the Centrelink delays in progressing her claim.

The ABC has been contacted by numerous listeners who have also been waiting months for their aged pension claim to be processed, with no idea how their application is progressing.

Joe: “I first applied in July. When you do actually get to speak to someone, they’re generally very helpful. But it’s really, really hard to get through on the telephone. I’m just looking for a part pension. I’m 72, and I’m struggling a little bit.”

Department blames staff shortage

Honk Jongen, general manager of Services Australia, said much of the delay was caused by the department being short staffed.

“I’m the first to concede that we are not meeting demands as we would like to and as our customers would like us to,” Mr Jongen said.

Mr Jongen said Centrelink currently has 34,000 age pension claims waiting to be processed and the average processing time is 72 days.

“Up until now, we’ve not had sufficient staff to deal with the workload that we face,” he said.

“Now the government has recognised that and late last year, they allocated us sufficient funding for an additional 3,000 staff.

Mr Jongen said the other factor which can delay claim processing was applicants not supplying all the necessary information, or having complex financial affairs.

“Many people have got complex financial affairs, trusts, in shares and other investments, all of which need to be appropriately assessed,” he said.

“In some instances, we need to go to third parties to confirm the information that that is required, all of which can contribute to delays.”

Urgent cases should visit office

He said people in acute need should visit a Centrelink office in person if possible.

“In Adele’s case, this is a clear situation,” he said.

“If she’s experiencing financial hardship, then what she should do is, if she can, visit her local office, because if she explains her situation to our staff, we will do what we can to help her out.”

Mr Jongen said the training was advanced for many of the new recruits employed to ease the backlog.

“We’re moving to try and get them on board as quickly as we can,” he said.