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This is the most complained about govt agency

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Centrelink has retained the dubious honour of being the most complained about federal agency, a recent report revealed.

Of 28,154 complaints received by the Commonwealth Ombudsman in 2014-15, 6280 related to Centrelink – an increase of 26.5 per cent.

Many complaints related to the difficulty of navigating the complexities of the welfare agency.

• Customers hanging up on Centrelink
• Centrelink recognises ‘friends with benefits’
• Killers steal identity, fool family of murder victim and daughter

The difficulty of accessing the online and phone complaints services was another common complaint.

The Ombudsman released the final report of an investigation into service delivery complaints against the financial assistance agency in 2014.

It described one hour waits, multiple call transfers and referrals when clients finally spoke to a Centrelink officer, as well as increased call costs.

Australia Post was ranked second in the complaints stakes and saw an increase of 38 per cent to a total of 5613.

Loss of mail, slow delivery and poor complaint handling were the most common problems.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection prompted 1810 complaints, while complaints from overseas students about private education providers rose 33 per cent to 689.

The complaints related to fee disputes, provider refusal to transfer students to another provider and provider decisions to report students to the immigration department for failing to meet course and attendance requirements.

In 2013-14, Centrelink paid $159.2 billion in social services benefits.

-with AAP

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