Turning 67 is a significant milestone. After a lifetime of work, you can now sit back and relax - but not before tangling with Centrelink.
At a recent workshop, hosted by Services Australia, representatives from National Seniors Australia (NSA) and Council of the Ageing (COTA), joined with Services Australia staff to discuss how it could improve the processes involved with applying for and maintaining the Age Pension.
The key mantra for the day was "make it simpler".
While policy changes were not on the table, there was a commitment made to improving the way older people interact with Services Australia and Centrelink to make the journey easier.
NSA hears all the time about the frustrations that older people have when interacting with Services Australia and Centrelink. For example, our 2018 report on experiences of Centrelink showed both good and bad aspects of older people's interactions.
While this report did not focus on people's experience of the application process, we do know from feedback from our community there are definite roadblocks that cause frustration. We brought these insights to the workshop to contribute to the conversation.
Participants broke into groups to identify the pain points in the process - and there were many.
One of the biggest was the lack of trust combined with fear of making a mistake. This was fuelled by the complexity of the pension process and has implications for the way people interact with the system.
For example, a high proportion of people apply via paper forms and visit Centrelink offices rather than interacting online. This indicates a lack of trust or confidence in the online systems.
The fear of getting it wrong means older people avoid using the online service, when this might have been an easier option.
With many opting for the paper application form, it is critical that this form is simple and streamlined. However, because the form must account for all variations of circumstance, it becomes a 28-page tome. Unlike the online version, which can remove sections that are not relevant, applicants have to make their way through every page and assess if they need to fill out each question.
Because the application process requires significant personal and financial information, this also creates a barrier as it often requires the applicant to hunt down supporting documents to prove what they declare, slowing down the application process at both ends if these documents are incorrect or incorrectly processed.
Greater automation and linkage with the ATO could help ease some of these roadblocks but this would require significant investment from the government.
It was also noted by Services Australia staff that when an applicant is faced with a question that doesn't make sense, there is no easy way to get advice unless you are willing to call and hold on the phone or trudge down to the local Centrelink office.
This is something that we have observed. People often take in information more easily through a conversation than reading something on a form or online. Which is why Centrelink's Financial Information Service is so popular and well regarded by older people.
Contact a consultant
National Seniors Australia (NSA) offers a Financial Information Consultant service to our members to assist them make informed decisions about everyday financial issues.
Topics you may wish to discuss with the Financial Information Consultant include: Superannuation, taxation, downsizing, inheritance rules, aged care, estate planning, moving into retirement villages, Age Pension and other Centrelink payments, and accessing equity in the home.
Details are here .
It was also noted at the workshop there was a lack of engagement with customers, but also a fear of setting people off unnecessarily when seeking to ensure that people's details are up to date.
Pensioners are required to update their information if their circumstances change. In the past, Services Australia would send out regular reminders, but this would worry people unnecessarily resulting in a spike in calls and visits to Centrelink.
As a result, these communications were reduced. However, this had the opposite effect. Pensioners who should be updating their details regularly, such as those with changes to their savings and investments, were not doing so.
It was suggested that a more nuanced "triage" approach be applied to these communications, so that only those who were more likely to experience a change of circumstance be reminded regularly to update their details - part-pensioners, for example.
Another innovation that was discussed was the idea of provisionally approving applicants with limited assets and income (below the thresholds for the maximum payment rate) to speed up the approval process (pending the provision of supporting documents).
Many other great ideas were put forward to improve the pension application and maintenance processes, and a commitment to working through these.
NSA will continue to work with COTA and Services Australia to progress these changes to make it easier for pensioners to apply for and maintain their payments in the future.
