I worked for Department of Social Security, then for Centrelink, for about 15 years in total. I was one of the victims of staff cuts through voluntary (or not so voluntary) redundancy. Please bear in mind that I left more that 5 years ago, so some of my knowledge may be out of date due to changes in law and policy.
Unlike most employees in any organisation, I started at near the top in Canberra starting straight out of uni, then through choice worked my way down, through the HR stream, down to Area Office in Melbourne. I never worked face to face contact in a customer service centre, I mostly worked in policy planning and implementation. For a while I worked in compliance/fraud policies, again with no direct client contact so can't help with how to deal with debts directly.
Obviously I can't divulge any tricks (even if I knew of any which I don't ;)) about how you can get away with so and so… so don't even ask.
A few points I want to put up front. These are purely my personal opinions, and in no way reflect any other employee in these areas, the department, or the government as a whole.
Human services/centrelnk staff numbers have been cut to the bone. From about 16,000 staff when I started to less than 3000 staff today, while increased population, influx of refugees and other immigration mean workload has increased by 50%. You can see yourself if you walk into a centrelnk office the number of empty desks and chairs where a person used to sit.
You cannot blame Centrelnk as an organisation fully. Each year they receive from the government a budget and productivity gains whch they have to work with. And like staffing, the budget gets smaller while the workload getts bigger. Know this from personal experience. I pity the Area Managers who have to make do with the pittance they get allocated by Canberra to do their work.
Please please please do not blame the staff at a centrelnk office. They are under a lot of pressure and are doing the best they can with limited resources. Also a lot of (often unrealistic) quotas have been introduced where you have to process x number of claims, or recover x number of $ in debts, etc. if you consistently fail to reach those, they can get rid of you for incompetence!!! Figure that one out.
Now I know this will be controversial: While a lot of decisions are system-based and made automatically, most human-based decisions about entitlements, debts, etc, are often subjective. That is they are the OPINION of the case manager looking at the evidence before them, their experience, etc. This is because Social Security Law Does not cover all possible variations of entitlement. So there are (or used to be when I was there) Centrelnk Guidelines which staff refer to when making decisions. Unlike law, the guidelines do not need Parliament approval, they only need to be "signed off" by centrelink internally.
If you get a debt, DO NOT PAY IT immediately, without double checking or triple checking that it is correct. Bear in mind that most debts come from Data Matching from the ATO and other organisations. It may be system generated. If it does not look right, ask for a review for a human to go through the evidence. Thry may ask you for proof of what you are disputing which you should provide ASAP. This is your right.
There are number of organisations that can give you social security advice. It is in your best inerest to get the best advice you can. Google the National Social Security Rights Network (NSSRN), or Social Security Rights, Victoria if in melbourne. They can give you invaluable advice before makng a claim, or how to appeal a debt or adverse decision.
I may not get back to give you an answer right away so bear with me. Thank you.
The staff levels may explain why the phone line doesnt even get to rng tone. Just says busy. Waited 1hr to see someone at centrelink on Friday. Lots of empty desks as you say. However the staff are really helpful and really responsive as to helping and courteous.