The average processing time for claims with Services Australia has continued to rise steadily since the start of the decade. Services Australia chief executive officer David Hazlehurst reported the latest numbers at the Senate Estimates meeting last week showing the average days to process an Age Pension payment had grown to 68 days, almost 5 times more than the FY 2020-21 average of 14 days.
During the meeting, Mr Hazlehurst suggested that reducing the backlog is a critical issue currently being addressed by Services Australia, but that current resource levels are not allowing for a reduction in processing times. Mr Hazlehurst did point out that 3,000 additional staff are in the pipeline and are expected to come online in the next few months that should result in decreased wait times on claims and an increase in the average speed-of-answer on Services Australia phone numbers.
The table below, using data disclosed by Services Australia during Senate Estimates on 25 October 2023 and 14 February 2024, shows the average number of days taken to process an Age Pension claim.
| Age Pension | Average Days to process |
| FY 2020-21 | 14 |
| FY 2021-22 | 35 |
| FY 2022-23 | 33 |
| 2023-24 1 July to 31 Aug | 61 |
| 2023-24 1 Sept to 31 Dec | 68 |
Beat the wait times
These wait times will cause significant financial stress for many people. It is important therefore that you don’t add to the delays. There are a couple of things you can do:
Firstly, while you need to be of Age Pension age (67 for those born after 1 January 1957) in order to qualify for the Age Pension, you can apply up to 13 weeks beforehand. This means you can reduce the time you will have to wait after you become age eligible.
Also, if you are still working and you have already reached Age Pension age, then you can apply before you actually stop work. When it comes to the declaration of income, you are able to insert your full work income and this will be used in the income calculation to determine if it is below the income limit. Or if within the next two weeks you will be stopping or reducing work hours (and thus earning less income) then you can declare this expected lower amount.
Finally do everything you can to ensure you have all the supporting and evidence to support your claim included with your application. You don’t want your application to be delayed because you have made an error. Need some help to navigate your application – or lack of success so far? Steven and his team are experts at knowing the rules and how they apply in individual circumstances. For the short term at least, Retirement Essentials expects wait and processing times at Centrelink to get even longer as staff cope with both the current backlog and the onboarding of new staff. We can’t speed up Centrelink but we can help you get your application into the queue as quickly as possible if you need any assistance.
My husband’s application is up to 92 days today, without any contact from Centrelink at all. We went I to an office and were told they are currently taking about 110 days to process!!
I applied for the pension 4 years ago & was told by everyone, including Centrelink, that it was standard procedure to put the application in 3 months before my qualifying birthday. So not much has changed, except Covid, which put a spanner in the works for pretty-much everything. I did that & everything was perfect. Also, my C’link office in Gosford NSW was fantastic with all their help & communication. Hope it all works out for you.
was told mine would be done by the 18-25 of Feb this year, I applied dec last year am transfering from carers to aged.
My claim took 7months !(1/6/2023 till late Jan 2024) it may have been because I have overseas part pensions as well, but a pretty long time. All Centrelink staff at the local office and on the phone were extremely helpful with as much as they could do. I think the only way to make thinks happen on the staff shortage front is to make a complaint about the time its taking. I, probably like many others in our age bracket, didn’t really want to complain because of the good service I’d had. But I did put in a complaint and indeed it was answered with a personal phone call.
Centrelink is a great service…just woefully understaffed IMHO.
In 2022 I’ve uploaded application for age pension 3 months to due date as was recommended on the website.
It was processed within this period and I got first payment exactly when expected.
I have 5 [yes that’s right] FIVE unresponded to letters to Centrelink going back as far as six months. I’m not a betting man, but I’d be willing to wager London to a brick on that if my name was Malcolm Turnbull and I had substantiative assets worth more than the allowed $450,000 and I had a query about my $3,300 a week stipend I wouldn’t’ wait that long
Contact your MP – they often have leverage. I contact mine for everything and it’s like he has a magic wand.
68 days???, my wife and I applied 5 months ago. with absolutely no word through mygov I went to the centerlink office. they advised average is 5 months and as I did have an old partnership which needs investigating it could take another three months. we are 70 years old, I wonder if the Detainees recently released and reportedly on welfare had to wait this long.
On TV a couple of days ago, they said the wait to process an Age Pension application is now 6 months.
I had rented out my sole residential property while overseas for some years, and when I returned I had to rent a flat as my house was tenanted and I really did not want to move back in immediately. However, while looking for work after registering with Jobseeker (I am 65 years old) I was told that I cannot receive any income assistance as my assets exceeded the 450 k cutoff. They had included the value of my principal place of residence as an “investment” although I was paying almost the same amount in rent as was being received from the “investment”. By Centrelink’s own confession, they do not have a policy for these unusual circumstances in place, and we therefore become innocent victims.
I applied back in Sept 2023, still looking at My Gov Centrelink. Just says, application has been received, and is being processed. I have a mate, his took 9mnths. So I don’t know where they get 68days.
Yes like every Federal Government Department , if they want something out of you they are pretty quick to they you especially if you owe the Income Tax Department money if you don’t pay up by a certain time they hit you with an interest surcharge of 16 to 17 % in the dollar late payment , but if it is them that owe you anything it is like a slow working dope and there is no urgency in doing things quickly .
Submitted my application for Aged Pension 26th September 2023 and attended their Heidelberg Office 8th Feb 2024 and still waiting. What would have happened if I didn’t pay my Taxes on time????
Everything in Australia related to government services today is so complicated it takes thousands of personnel to review and assess, the productivity commission should look into this exercise in futility, and maybe a cost benefit analysis would be enlightening. There are of course good people in Centrelink but they are not being used to best advantage. Companies like Retirement Essentials, along with Tax Agents flourish because of the complexity so have a vested interest in how it all works, or should I say does not work for most.
If these wait times are so long perhaps we should be able to apply 6 months before it is due. What do we do meantime….have to work an extra 2 or 3 months until we finally receive the pension?
Truely..do we have to keep working until it comes through?
One thing I have never heard mention of in the discussions about delayed processing of claims is whether payments are backdated, once approved. At the moment I don’t qualify for a pension, but expect to apply in the next year or so.
Hi Francis, yes Centrelink do back date pension payments. They will cover from the day your claim is lodged up until the day of approval.
I applied for the aged pension mid November 2023.
The information they supplied said that it should be processed between 4th January and 11th January 2024??
It’s now beginning of March 24.
Their estimated timing is way out. It just gets people’s hopes up when in reality it’s not feasible.
My application was submitted around mid 2023 and I have heard nothing