''Dealing with Services Australia Robot ... Actually Broke me'': Services Australia's Systems Contributing to Existing Disadvantage Among Vulnerable Populations Groups (Woman, Rural, Regional and Remote Community Members and Indigenous & CALD Families)

Due to a cost-of-living crisis, Services Australia has increasingly been receiving calls from a high number of clients requiring supports. This has led to congested phone lines with an ABC article indicating call wait times had increased (<45 minutes), and there was a back log of claims (1.1 million) (Stonehouse, 2024). After Serco Group lost their contract with Services Australia in 2023, a new automated answering service was installed to reduce the number of clients calling to check the status of their claim. The system disconnects users once they indicate they want to use a service that could potentially be accessed online, then if the client calls again within a certain timeframe, they are immediately disconnected. While this system was introduced to reduce call congestion by moving a percentage of clients online, this contributed to 7 million unanswered calls in 2023. These challenges caused frustration, particularly among those people who already experience considerable disadvantage. Even though the Department recruited new staff to respond to a shortage of workers providing client support, training 3000 new staff requires time before they are 'job ready', further exacerbating current access issues. There have been a number of other initiatives to modernise services, including Community Partnership Offices for vulnerable clients. Most of these offices are currently located in metropolitan areas, therefore not assisting those living in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities.