20/10/2025
“Oh, but someone at Centrelink told me, so it must be right.”
This, this right here boils my blood – what people need to understand is that staff at Centrelink are not gods and they do not make the rules, they just have a habit of poorly understanding and conveying them.
The rules are dictated by the Social Security Act 1991 (Cth), not by whoever answered the call at Centrelink, and there is little recourse when a trusting member of the public assumes that what they are being told on the phone by Centrelink staff is correct when it is blatantly wrong (and there are implications).
We battle this issue daily, spending irrecoverable time arguing with Centrelink about their incorrect understanding of the legislation that they work under.
In a single call today, our staff were provided with countless pieces of incorrect information (some advice, the staff member doubled down on more than once) when trying to assist a client to prepare for their partner’s entry into Aged Care!
Thankfully, we know their own rules better than they do!!
The following are just some of the blatantly incorrect statements that were made by Centrelink staff in the call. If ANY ONE of these pieces of advice had been followed, this would have resulted in around ⚠️💲$35,000 PER YEAR💲⚠️ in unnecessary Aged Care fees that would have been irreversible:
⛔️Centrelink Staff’s Advice: Their rural property will be assessed when entry assessment is completed. ❌Incorrect!❌ The assessment of the rural property that we require MUST be in place prior to the entry assessment.
⛔️Centrelink Staff’s Advice: If this is their only property, it will not be assessed. ❌Incorrect!❌ That statement is just blatantly incorrect as there are a range of factors to consider besides whether it is their only property when determining if it will be assessable.
⛔️Centrelink Staff’s Advice: Their entire property will be exempt from assessment for a period of 2 years because the husband lives there. ❌Incorrect!❌ The property in question is considered a Large Property or Large Suburban Block (over 5 acres), resulting in the value of the property outside of the home and surrounding 5 acres being valued and assessable (without the specific assessment we are trying to get them to undertake). The 2-year period of exemption they told us the client would have access to doesn’t apply to the Aged Care fees and will not apply anyway as the husband will continue to live in the home.
⛔️Centrelink Staff’s Attempted Actions: Tried to undertake an Aged Care entry assessment while we were on the phone with them. ❌Catastrophic!❌ Delaying this assessment was the primary reason for the call as this process had been inadvertently triggered earlier than required – completing this assessment would have been irreversible and financially devastating.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and is the reality of what we are up against every day. If we have this much trouble getting things done right (when our expertise and years of experience and training are related to this exact area), what hope does the public have in getting a correct assessment?
Centrelink - just do better!!!!
Australian Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek I don't know what the solution to this is, but this is an ongoing issue every day.
