Biggest Challenge
Or if you prefer, you can just read the transcript
JENNI:
Welcome, everyone - My name is Jenni Erbel, and I'm from Strategic Outsource Solutions, and I'm here with Jacqueline Parker from My Age Pension.
I've known Jacqueline for a long, long time when she was a financial planner and business person.
And more recently, I've had a friend of mine that I've referred to Jacqueline, that Jacqueline was able to help her actually get the disability support pension
So, Jacqueline, can you tell us a little bit about what's the biggest challenge that people have when they're applying for a pension through Services Australia?
JACQUELINE:
Jenni, thank you for the introduction.
I guess I'm going to preface my answer with I believe that most people that work for Department of Human Services or Centerlink, as more commonly known, are genuine in terms of that, they want to help you.
But the biggest challenge for people who are applying for the age pension is that when they have contact with these people, they think they're talking to someone who actually knows how the system works.
The reality is, most of the frontline staff are not trained or poorly trained and very inexperienced, which means quite often the answers to people's questions are incomplete or at worse, sometimes totally incorrect.
And that's a massive issue for someone who's trying to apply for the age pension.
JENNI:
Yeah, I can imagine
JACQUELINE:
I see it all the time. I hear stories all the time.
And like I said, right at the beginning of answering this question, I don't think it's done on purpose. I genuinely don't.
It's just that they are frontline staff and they are trained as frontline staff and they are not expected to know everything, but they feel under pressure when they ask questions and they answer those questions. And so many times they answer them incorrectly.
JENNI:
So does that mean that sometimes an assessment comes out or an answer given and it's wrong? And maybe people can qualify to get something, but the clients end up believing they can't.
And that's really what your business does. Provides that help.
JACQUELINE:
It's not unusual for someone on the front line to actually turn a client away and say to them, look, you're not going to qualify, so don't bother applying.
And that's really scary because it means that the application doesn't get to the people who actually know the Centerlink system, who are the processors and the complex claims officers.
And I have a classic example of exactly that happening where a client came to me this year. They went into Centerlink, saw a front line officer, explained to them their situation, and the officer literally told them, you need to come back in five years’ time.
The basis of come back in five years’ time is that the officer perceived that this couple had actually gifted their business to their son. And, of course, under the gifting rules or, more technically correct, the deprivation rules, the value of that gift is counted as an asset for five years.
There were two things went wrong there.
First is that officer had no capacity to understand the value of the gift if it was in fact a gift. And the second is they had no technical capacity to understand the actual transaction that took place.
So through word of mouth, they came and saw me and told me their story. I had a look at their situation, and there was no need for them to go away for five years.
Yes, their situation was complex and yes, it did take a couple of months for us to actually get the claim through, but we got the claim through, and they're now on the full age Pension.
JENNI:
Well, that's fantastic!
I suppose if anyone's listening and watching this video presentation, if anyone would like to contact Jacqueline as a way of maybe checking out what they've been told by Services Australia or Department of Human Services or Centrelink, whichever name you prefer, you can contact Jacqueline on 0419787847 or email Jacqueline myagepension.com.au
JACQUELINE:
Thank you, Jenny
JENNI:
Thanks, Jacqueline