Analysis of Centrelink Services: Effectiveness and Improvements

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Centrelink, a key branch of the Australian Department of Human Services. It details Centrelink's functions, including financial assistance, childcare assessment, residential care, mobility allowance, and Medicare, highlighting its role in providing essential services to retired, unemployed, and disabled individuals. The report analyzes the funding model, effectiveness of services, and identifies both positive aspects, such as providing crucial support, and negative aspects, like the use of the robodebt system. It suggests improvements, such as eliminating the robodebt system, to enhance service delivery and ensure fairness. The conclusion emphasizes Centrelink's significance in addressing the financial needs of Australians and its overall positive impact on society, despite some identified shortcomings.

Running head: CENTRELINK
Centrelink
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Functions performed by Centrelink.......................................................................................3
Financial Assistance...........................................................................................................3
Childcare Assessment........................................................................................................3
Residential care..................................................................................................................4
Mobility allowance.............................................................................................................4
Medicare.............................................................................................................................4
Funding of the Centrelink......................................................................................................4
Effectiveness of the services..............................................................................................5
Positive aspects..................................................................................................................5
Negative aspect..................................................................................................................5
Improvement in the services..................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The Centrelink Master Program is the branch of Department of Human Services
initiated by the Government of Australia. The main function of this organization is to provide
financial assistance offered by the government of Australia for the retired, unemployed and
fro the people who with physical disability. The major part of the services are related to the
distribution of payments for the ones who are suffering from social security issues. The
organizations established the offices all across the nation for the management of needs of the
people based on social security (Hart, 2013). In the year 2011, Centrelink in collaboration
with the Medicare Australia was included into the Department of Human Services under the
Human Services Act, 2011 and the department reserved the name and continued to offer the
services.
Functions performed by Centrelink
The purpose served by the Centrelink is the identification of the families who are
suffering from economic crisis and provide assistance to them. It offers a wide range of
governmental payments and services to the individuals who have retired, facing
unemployment in Australia. They functions are enlisted below:
Financial Assistance: Financial Assistance is the main function of Centrelink that is the sole
purpose for the construction of the department. The elderly people who are facing economic
crisis due to the lack of available resources are the ones who are in need of the assistance
offered by the department (Ewart et al., 2017). The efficiency of the process lies in the proper
identification of those individuals who actually need the assistance and help them in
improving their situation.
Childcare Assessment: This is another facility that is offered by the Centrelink that includes
the collection of information about the background of a child and then utilizing the

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information for the implementation of the plans initiated. It is implemented in the sphere of
educational facilities to the child. Assessment plays a major important role in the
identification of the abilities of a child. The agency shares the information with the parents to
let them know about the development of their child. The progress of the child becomes easy
to assess when the agency formulates the report to the parents as well as the institutions.
Residential care: It is provided to those individuals who do not have their own homes to live
in. They live in the residential arrangements that are provided to them by the Centrelink. It
works to provide accommodation to those who lack the basic amenities for survival. Those
people who suffer from any medical condition are also included under the residential care
assessment program.
Mobility allowance: Mobility allowance is provided to the individuals who lack the ability to
bear the costing of the procedure of travelling. The mobility allowance is provided to the
students who want to travel abroad for further studies and are unable to gather the funds for
the travel procedure. The people with disabilities are also provided financial assistance to
avail treatment that they cannot avail without the assistance of the body (Borland, 2014).
Medicare: The Medicare assistance means providing healthcare assistance by giving
insurance after the identification of the individuals who fall under the criteria of the
Centrelink. The body has included medical plans for the healthcare facilities of the
individuals who are unable to pay the expense of the medical process and have to suffer due
to the lack of it. The elderly population consists of the larger share of the people who avail
the benefits.
Funding of the Centrelink: The process of funding for Centrelink is in the process of
revision from the government. The new model provides an insight into the costing that is
involved into the services that are given to the individuals by the agency. The costing each

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member receives from the organisation is also under the new model of funding. The funds are
accessed through the Pensioner concession card, Pensioner education supplement, relocation
scholarship are some of the ways through which funds are availed in the Centrelink. It can be
assessed by the information provided above that the group that avails the services of the
agency are mainly those people who are homeless, aged, sick, unemployed and the retired
personnel who are suffering from economic crisis and are unable to fulfill their basic needs.
Effectiveness of the services: Centrelink has envisaged itself in providing effective services
to the community and ensuring the funds provided by it for the development of the concerned
group. The correctness of the payment is an important aspect of the Centrelink. The payments
that made are supervised by the organization on part of the government. The effectiveness of
the services is analysed from the fact that a large share of the population has derived benefits
from this scheme (Hall, 2016). The four pillars of assuring correctness and efficiency of
payment are right person, right rate, right program and right date.
Positive aspects: The positive aspect of the services is that it has provided assistance and
guidance to the target group whose condition has improved by receiving funds from the
government. It has created a sustainable environment for the survival of those whom suffered
due to economic restraint (Bista, Nepal & Paris, 2013).
Negative aspect: The use of robodebt system by Centrelink is identified as the negative
aspect as it does not guarantee the identification of the fair group who are in need of the
services. The process of identifying the group should be made manual that will lead in lower
discrepancies in the process of availing the benefits.
Improvement in the services: The improvement in the payment system can be achieved
when the robodebt system is eliminated from the process of identifying the stakeholder
groups as it will provide fairness to the process of identification. The auto detection system

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fails to create authentic identification and this leads to the disruption of the services. All these
problems can be minimized and eliminated by reinstating the manuals methods. Manual
methods will help in the reduction of the failure to the process and provide it with an efficient
base (Nepal, Paris & Georgakopoulos, 2015).
Conclusion
Thus, it can be analysed from the above report that the services provided by the
Centrelink are concerned with the financial issues that are faced by the residents of Australia.
The services have proved to be efficient in the sphere of the society as it has improved the
condition of the elderly and the population that has suffered from the problems. The
reduction in the rate of people who suffer from economic issues are comparatively low now.
Despite all the positive services provided by Centrelink, there is a small share of negative
impacts that can be neglected. Therefore, it is established that Centrelink is an important part
of the administration in Australia.

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References
Hart, D. (2013). Processes of social work engagement with the reforming state in Australia:
The case of Centrelink.
Ewart, S. B., Happell, B., Bocking, J., Platania‐Phung, C., Stanton, R., & Scholz, B. (2017).
Social and material aspects of life and their impact on the physical health of people diagnosed
with mental illness. Health Expectations, 20(5), 984-991.
Hall, G. (2016). Room to Relate in Centrelink? Attempts to Engage Supportively by Drawing
on Guidance from Social Workers (Doctoral dissertation, Griffith University).
Borland, J. (2014). Dealing with unemployment: What should be the role of labour market
programs?. Evidence Base, 4(1), 1-21.
Bista, S. K., Nepal, S., & Paris, C. (2013, June). The Human Touch of Government Services.
In UMAP Workshops.
Nepal, S., Paris, C., & Georgakopoulos, D. (Eds.). (2015). Social Media for Government
Services. Springer International Publishing.