Newly unemployed Australians queue at Centrelink offices as MyGov website crashes again
"Supermarkets, pharmacies in NSW get green light for 24-hour trading "Australia - Are banks freezing mortgages? Here are the banks putting payments on hold amid coronavirus""
Government services minister Stuart Robert apologises for inadequate preparations for the economic impact of coronavirus
Luke Henriques-Gomes @lukehgomes
Tue 24 Mar 2020 02.57 EDT First published on Mon 23 Mar 2020 22.50 EDT
People queue outside a Centrelink office in Sydney. The MyGov website crashed again as thousands of Australians sought access to welfare payments. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
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The lines, which stretched around blocks again on Tuesday, were in response to the government’s decision to boost unemployment benefits by $550 a fortnight from 27 April and to mass losses of jobs and income as the Covid-19 crisis forces society and the economy to grind to a halt. They come as the government institutes increasingly strict social distancing measures.
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“When I ring the phone number, I get an automated service,” Justin McMaugh, 44, told Guardian Australia. “I yell whatever I can down the line, hopefully they interpret it right, I wait, and then, ‘All our operators are busy, call back later’. You can’t get anywhere.”
McMaugh said he began queuing outside the Centrelink at Campsie about 8am on Tuesday and was seen about 10.30am.
“The line was already about three blocks long,” he said. It snaked around the whole building.”
McMaugh works as a roadie and had about $30,000 worth of work over three months lined up. “All wiped out in 48 hours,” he said.
“All they are doing is just trying to get you into the system, then they give you paperwork and send you home to sort it out yourself,” he said.
“The staff were so tense, they shouldn’t be there,” he added. “I feel so bad for them. The government should just put money in people’s bank accounts and let us sort it out in a few months.”
Labor has lashed Robert for his handling of the crisis, including his incorrect claim that MyGov technical issues on Monday were caused by a DDoS cyber attack.
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