21 June 2012

Lanyon bogans coming North for their Centrelink needs! (And Civic Medicare to close)

| johnboy
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Senator Humphries has the chilling news that the Lanyon Centrelink shopfront is being closed in July with horrible consequences for the city as their clients are forced further afield to secure their hand outs!

“The Lanyon Centrelink has been servicing customers since 1999 and today we find out that that service will be gone by this time next month. The Civic Medicare, servicing roughly 400 customers per day, will be shut in August, severely affecting city workers who might want to lodge a claim with Medicare in their lunchtime.

“This is an extraordinary decision – Medicare Civic serves 100,000 customers a year!

“These Human Services shopfronts provide a vital service to Canberrans, but with almost no notice and no explanation the Government has decided they have to go. It’s clear what’s happening here – just another desperate dash for cash”.

The Government has previously claimed that cuts to departmental budgets and the increased efficiency dividend would not result in any reduction in services.

Moving on to the Civic Medicare, where’s the nearest alternative?

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I asked at the Medicare office in Civic today and they are definitely moving to the Braddon Centrelink in a couple of months. And they will no longer give back cash in a month, just EFT to bank accounts.

Gershwin said :

Mysteryman said :

Gershwin said :

…The idea that this is a “Gillard government” thing is laughable… implementing the ongoing co-location of Department of Human Services services branded as Centrelink, Medicare Australia, and Child Support Agency. This has been happening all over the country for the past three years and would not be linked to the current budget environment.

Actually it’s entirely a Gillard government thing.

The Human Services Legislation Amendment Act 2011 integrated the services of Centrelink, Medicare Australia and CRS Australia into the Department of Human Services, with effect from 1 July 2011. It originated as the Human Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 – introduced after Gillard took office.

Nope. The integration of the service delivery portfolio was announced by Chris Bowen, the then-Minister for Human Services, on 16 December 2009:

http://www.chrisbowen.net/media-centre/speeches.do?newsId=2809

The co-location of services and thr development of the Bill started from around that time. The Act formally integrated the agencies into one department – which is a separate matter than simply having them sitting together.

Prime Minister Gillard was sworn in on 24 June 2010.

Labor government, yes. Gillard government, no.

There you have it. Thanks for the correction.

Madam Cholet2:30 pm 22 Jun 12

Chainsaw? Axe? Just waht is the correct tool to take to the PS with?

I would have thought cookie cutter would be more effective!

You know Johnboy, Lanyon “bogans” are everywhere…………..I have my sights set on the eagles nest as I type…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Issue comes to mind immediately: will people who have jobs (and little time) have to queue along with welfare recipients (who surely have plenty of time)? Medicare needs to service people who are nipping in during lunch or taking a bit of precious time out of their working day to get their refund. I don’t think it’s fair to treat them the same as Newstart/pensioner/sole parent beneficiaries.

Antagonist said :

Jim Jones said :

The Libs are promising to make cutbacks to the public service that pale in comparison to what’s occurring under Labor.

This one has been around since Moses. And oddly enough, the sky has not fallen yet. Not even when Howard was supposed to take to the APS with a chainsaw.

No, the sky hasn’t fallen in. But it’s all on the record that the Libs will take to the public service with an axe if (when) they get in. If (when) this happens, service delivery will necessarily suffer.

Howard did take to the public service when he got in, and the effects were felt very strongly by Canberra. Of course, after the initial purge, there were a number of years where the public service grew again. I daresay this would happen following a Liberal government.

They all love to talk about small government and the evil shiny-bums that don’t live in ‘Real Australia TM’, but they need a public service to provide the services (and electoral bribes) that the population has come to expect.

Basilbrush said :

Darkfalz said :

Been lodging online for a couple of years. Money straight into my bank the next day, much easier.

Me too…..saves so much time and hassle – plus you don’s spend the money straight away like I used to do

That’s half the fun! Leave work to visit doctor. Get doctor’s bill and CASH in the pocket straight away. Beeline to the pub.

Jim Jones said :

The Libs are promising to make cutbacks to the public service that pale in comparison to what’s occurring under Labor.

This one has been around since Moses. And oddly enough, the sky has not fallen yet. Not even when Howard was supposed to take to the APS with a chainsaw.

Mysteryman said :

Gershwin said :

…The idea that this is a “Gillard government” thing is laughable… implementing the ongoing co-location of Department of Human Services services branded as Centrelink, Medicare Australia, and Child Support Agency. This has been happening all over the country for the past three years and would not be linked to the current budget environment.

Actually it’s entirely a Gillard government thing.

The Human Services Legislation Amendment Act 2011 integrated the services of Centrelink, Medicare Australia and CRS Australia into the Department of Human Services, with effect from 1 July 2011. It originated as the Human Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 – introduced after Gillard took office.

Nope. The integration of the service delivery portfolio was announced by Chris Bowen, the then-Minister for Human Services, on 16 December 2009:

http://www.chrisbowen.net/media-centre/speeches.do?newsId=2809

The co-location of services and thr development of the Bill started from around that time. The Act formally integrated the agencies into one department – which is a separate matter than simply having them sitting together.

Prime Minister Gillard was sworn in on 24 June 2010.

Labor government, yes. Gillard government, no.

EvanJames said :

If Humphries thinks people are silly enough to believe that an Abbott government would provide better services for the downtrodden, he needs his head read.

+1

The Libs are promising to make cutbacks to the public service that pale in comparison to what’s occurring under Labor.

Darkfalz said :

Been lodging online for a couple of years. Money straight into my bank the next day, much easier.

Me too…..saves so much time and hassle – plus you don’s spend the money straight away like I used to do

If Humphries thinks people are silly enough to believe that an Abbott government would provide better services for the downtrodden, he needs his head read.

Medicare are anticipating that all medical services will electronically charge you their amount and then reimbuse the medicare component on the spot and will therefore make any shopfront of theirs redundant. At the KaosKwack we pay the clinic amount, e.g. $70, then we are reimbursed on the spot via Medicare/Hicaps, e.g. $30, so our account will show two transactions, a debit and a credit.

Medicare, like all other so called customer service departments and companies, are phasing out any face to face contact and cash transactions, mainly because their employees are not equipped to deal with real people or real money anymore.

Centrelink closing, good move, hopefully their “customers” will close up and move too.

harvyk1 said :

Went to Woden Medicare the other day. After I got the ticket from the machine it took another half an hour before I was served, the place was packed. Luckily I realised this was probably going to be the case so I went and got lunch whilst waiting.

With Civic closed (and so is tuggies right now) going to Medicare would easily take an hour of waiting. I do believe it is part of their grand plan of forcing people to get refunds directly deposited into bank accounts, all they need to do is make dealing with them face to face so damn difficult and people will either change their ways or just not claim because it’s too difficult (either way works for the gov’t)

And what is wrong with forcing people to choose an option that does not require expensive face to face contact and physical offices? Why would you object to a public service trying to reduce running costs? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I have my direct deposit thing set up and do the Medicare rebate at the doctor’s. Occasionally I get one who has not yet been set up to do it, so I think some effort to make this process easier at the practitioners’ end would be justifiable.

But pandering to people who have an irrational fear of digital bank transactions and insist on getting their rebate in cold hard cash is not something I am happy to have my tax contributions wasted on.

Same goes for those who absolutely insist on going to a shopfront to pay their car rego because they absolutely want to get their sticker straight away instead of waiting for it to be send out. There is no need and they cause longer waits for those who have no choice but to present at a shopfront.

Gershwin said :

…The idea that this is a “Gillard government” thing is laughable… implementing the ongoing co-location of Department of Human Services services branded as Centrelink, Medicare Australia, and Child Support Agency. This has been happening all over the country for the past three years and would not be linked to the current budget environment.

Actually it’s entirely a Gillard government thing.

The Human Services Legislation Amendment Act 2011 integrated the services of Centrelink, Medicare Australia and CRS Australia into the Department of Human Services, with effect from 1 July 2011. It originated as the Human Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 – introduced after Gillard took office.

Been lodging online for a couple of years. Money straight into my bank the next day, much easier.

The Civic Medicare office to moving to Braddon, co-located with Centrelink.

You can save time by:
* registering your bank account details with Medicare for a direct deposit when claiming rather than getting cash. As noted above, you can select a ticket option for that which will get you priority. Yes, that’s an incentive to get people to get on board with electronic funds transfer rather than cash.
* Claiming online via the Medicare website. Last time I looked, there were only selected medical services that can be claimed in this way, but that included general GP consultations. The types of service claimable online will improve, but general GP consults are a large chunk of the medical services cake.

The idea that this is a “Gillard government” thing is laughable. This is a fairly routine service delivery management decision taken that is balancing the demand for services, the rental cost at the current location, and implementing the ongoing co-location of Department of Human Services services branded as Centrelink, Medicare Australia, and Child Support Agency. This has been happening all over the country for the past three years and would not be linked to the current budget environment.

PrinceOfAles5:01 pm 21 Jun 12

No offence Gary but since when has a member of the Liberal party ever cared what happens to those on welfare? I`m sure uncle Tony would abolish Centrelink completely given half a chance.

Duffbowl said :

I was told as much a month or so ago at the Woden Medicare office. If you have a direct deposit set up, you get to jump to the head of the queue and they process your claim quickly.

This actually happened to me. I had a direct deposit setup, took my ticket, and got served straightaway, never mind the 20 or so odd people who got in there before me. Can’t say I minded, but I did get some fairly unpleasant looks.

Why *wouldn’t* you set up a direct deposit? Maybe my Gen Y is showing here, but it’s like going into banks instead of doing your banking online… inconvenient and time-consuming.

Queanbeyan Medicare is my shopfront of choice. The longest wait I have had there is 3-4 minutes. Always fast, mostly friendly (considering some of the shit they have to deal with). WHy would you waste time in Woden when you can probably drive from Woden to Quangers, go to Medicare and drive back in less time than you line up in Woden Medicare.

Quangers Medicare has the old-fashioned bank line, and I must say the waits there are pretty negligable. I mostly use online or post, but after going to the Doctor it can be handy to grab some cash.

Closing the Civic Medicare office is a killer. I use the online claims system whenever I can, but it’s very limited with what you can claim through it – seems that any type of consultation that’s not a standard doctor visit can’t be claimed online, so into the office it is.

Personally, I wouldn’t care if I never had to set foot in a Medicare office again – but their online systems need to be up to scratch first.

harvyk1 said :

Went to Woden Medicare the other day. After I got the ticket from the machine it took another half an hour before I was served, the place was packed. Luckily I realised this was probably going to be the case so I went and got lunch whilst waiting.

With Civic closed (and so is tuggies right now) going to Medicare would easily take an hour of waiting. I do believe it is part of their grand plan of forcing people to get refunds directly deposited into bank accounts, all they need to do is make dealing with them face to face so damn difficult and people will either change their ways or just not claim because it’s too difficult (either way works for the gov’t)

I was told as much a month or so ago at the Woden Medicare office. If you have a direct deposit set up, you get to jump to the head of the queue and they process your claim quickly.

I think the Lanyon Centrelink / Family Assist Office served a purpose when there were a lot of young families in the area. Not sure if the demand still isn’t there.

or people could do it online … or over the phone (to a call sentre in India)

Things aint getting better, I was in the mall Medicare office lunchtime. 53 people in the queue, 4 servers and 8 people served in 25 minutes including one that was still at the counter after 25 minutes.

I decided to try another day.

As smart as closing the Civic Canberra Connect office.

The Medicare in Belconnen is marginally closer to the city than the one in Woden.

As much as it will suck for the locals I don’t think closing centrelink in Lanyon will be the biggest problem (although Tuggers used to be pretty busy – I wonder it it will be given increased resources to deal with in influx?).

Closing medicare in the city seems like a pretty weird move?

Went to Woden Medicare the other day. After I got the ticket from the machine it took another half an hour before I was served, the place was packed. Luckily I realised this was probably going to be the case so I went and got lunch whilst waiting.

With Civic closed (and so is tuggies right now) going to Medicare would easily take an hour of waiting. I do believe it is part of their grand plan of forcing people to get refunds directly deposited into bank accounts, all they need to do is make dealing with them face to face so damn difficult and people will either change their ways or just not claim because it’s too difficult (either way works for the gov’t)

Relax, JB. With a Centrelink office available at Tuggeranong Towncentre, I don’t think there will be a northward bogan migration any time soon. I doubt the Lanyon businesses will miss the bogans hanging around out the front of their shops while the fat lazy bludgers who ‘work’ at Centrelink close the office during their lunch hour.

As for nearest Medicare to Civic – closest I know of is Woden.

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