Question Time

ConcessionsSA

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:17): I second your comments regarding this young couple behind me. My question is to the Minister for Human Services. Can the minister let my constituents know about the ConcessionsSA hotline response times to calls for assistance? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will elaborate a bit further.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: My office has had on several occasions assisted elderly members of my community who have come into my electorate office after their calls have not been answered in a timely fashion, being placed on hold with the ConcessionsSA hotline.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services, Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well) (14:17): I thank the member for the question. We have discussed this matter before. I am happy to provide an update on behalf of the ConcessionsSA hotline team to your constituents, member. The clear advice, first up, needs to be: how do we help people to search for their concessions payment in their bank account? I often say to my staff on a Friday, 'I have just finished the check-your-bank-account Friday pile,' because most of the time it is in respect of people being unable to find the payment in their bank account.

We have had lots and lots of correspondence over the past couple of years in respect of this problem of being able to locate the payment. Obviously, we have had additional payments, and the payment amounts have changed, but there has also been quite a lot of publicity, which is great. We have deliberately done that because we want people to know that we are listening and providing them with additional money into their account.

People do contact us claiming that they haven't received their payment. It usually ends up that the money is already in there but they have missed that or are not looking for the right description. In the first instance, look for the description 'Concessions COLC'—the concessions part in upper and lowercase and COLC in capitals.

The second most common reason we are contacted is because the bank account details haven't been changed so the funds have not been able to be deposited into the account. That can be corrected quickly. Sometimes the payment can be sent to a different account. ConcessionsSA can track and redirect that, but it might have been held up due to an inactive or closed account, which can be a problem. The third reason is that often the recipients are unaware that the Cost of Living Concession is a household payment, not an individual payment. There is only one payment per household.

Wait times do fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors, including the time of the year and any concessions-related announcements and media that have occurred, which might increase the traffic. Between July and December it is typically busier due to the annual payment and the accompanying application period, and over recent years this period has coincided with different budget announcements as well.

The average wait time for calls during July to September this year was 24 minutes and 26 seconds. That compares with seven minutes and 13 seconds during the January to March quarter, so there is a significant spike. In the most recent week of 21 to 25 October, the average was 11 minutes and eight seconds. Within the average wait times there can be specific periods when the wait times obviously go past that average, but then also some are quicker.

ConcessionsSA do endeavour to increase resources and have a lot of casual staff available to put on when the workload does go up, but with 210,000 people receiving concessions who aren't always able to track those payment details down and are seeking help via the phone, you can imagine it is very difficult to meet that demand.

During the period 1 August to 29 October, 74 per cent of calls were answered in less than 30 minutes and 50 per cent were answered in less than 20 minutes. To date, 216,000 households have received those concessions. We have flexed staff up to try to accommodate and help with that, but we are very happy to hear if there are delays. Thank you for the question.