My column on the RadioLive website this afternoon highlights how the government have failed in their promise to deliver better public services. Think how many work hours are lost every day as people ring govt 0800 numbers and wait, and wait, and wait…
Despite National’s promise to move resources ‘from the back office to the front line’ we’ve seen local frontline public services scaled back or closed, while the never-ending list of government 0800 numbers continues to grow.
Take Housing New Zealand for example. The Government has closed the doors of local branches and directed people to an 0800 number where they can wait over an hour just to have their call answered.
Housing New Zealand are a bit better than the IRD though. If you’re calling the govt to make sure you’re paying all your taxes, you could be up for a wait of several hours!
Work and Income call centre statistics aren’t that much better either. Last year some poor soul spent one hour and 10 minutes waiting for their call to the government “job line” to be answered. 6,500 people gave up trying to get through. No doubt Paula Bennett will try to argue that they’re lazy and unwilling to work when actually what they weren’t willing to do was sit around for hours waiting for the government to answer the phone.
I think it’s good that the government is providing a greater range of ways to access public services, such as through 0800 numbers and improved use of online communications, but they need to be properly resourced. New technology isn’t always cheaper, in fact sometimes it costs more to realise the full benefits of it.
Have just tried to book and appointment through the WINZ website. Logged on and was greeted with:
Error!
Sorry, we’re unable to process your request. You will need to contact us.
When the system asks you what you are calling about, please say ‘My account’ and we’ll put you through to someone who can assist you.
The appointment is to do with a change of circumstances, scored a two month part-time contract after months of job hunting, retraining in a new sector and doing part-time study. Am currently on the Invalids Benefit due to long-term moderate to severe mental health (depression and chronic anxiety) diagnosed at age 13. Been in and out of the mental health system since then. I have managed to completed a BA in Political Science and History, held down various jobs as my health has allowed and also undertaken volunteer work to gain additional work experience as when going for jobs the feedback was, “you need more experience” yet few people willing to hire people to gain the experience and yet I still get judge as a dole bludger by a large portion of society.
@rowell….. it could have been worse… you could have got through, made arrangements, and then discovered that they neglected to inform you of every, and all, of the reams of documentation required to make any kind of application to winz…just after it became too late to avoid dislocation of your income….
Even worse is getting your benefit cut off because the call center omitted to inform your local office information required to maintain your “obligations”…
For example, going to a job interview instead of the weekly conference(propaganda,browbeat session) ub beneficiaries are “obligated” to go to…informing the call center, and them not bothering to inform the local office…This happened to me twice…
Then i find out that those errors/oversights had gone on my record as two “strikes” against me…Had to throw a long, and ardent tantrum over that one before i got the necessary adjustment…..(threatened to go to carol beaumont eventually, she is being missed here in panmure btw)…
Our sympathies should go out to those of us who have greater obstacle than most being forced to justify their existence, and their realities, to the agents of the goverment that is elected to represent all new zealanders…yet avoids that path assiduously…
that represents an added pressure on individuals on more than one level….
The pressure that not having surety beyond the next assessment that there will be the means to keep a roof over your head, and food in your kitchen…
The emotional pressure of having to justify yourself to doctors, and then to agents of a government that has a policy of scapegoating the least powerful as a substitute for enacting “duty of care” responsibilities, which is a basic tenet of any mature “society” of humans…
This has led a large number of extremely fragile individuals to opt for the unemployment benefit…. the money is the same, without the costs of regular doctors visits etc…..
The level of constant justification is still there, but at least the scrutiny of your personal issues are left out…one less impediment…
Once the reality that, on the ground, case managers within winz have started taking a very “relaxed” approach to hounding people over their job search… there is a tacit acknowledgement that if there aren’t any jobs for people to be shoehorned into, then it just hurts everyone concerned to go through those motions…
That would amount to blatant harassment, and most who work in these offices are there because they like helping people(believe it or not)….
The website has been a mess since it’s inception… but what else can you expect when, once you get past upper middle management, the focus is on squeezing money from the system.. the government is leaking money into the ether at an alarming rate…. that money has to come from somewhere…
Better it comes from non national voters by any measure you care to use(from the tory playbook, of course)
Giving people an easier, and less fraught way of accessing whichever department they need to amounts to a “nice to have”, but seeing as how it would be mainly non national voters who benefit from that, then they have much more important people to attend to….