The Department of Human Services (DHS) oversees not only Centrelink payments, but also Medicare and child support services in Australia.
Jyoti Aujla, who works at DHS's Assessment Services and Smart Centres Co-ordination branch gave an overview of all these services, talked about all the multilingual service options available and spoke at length about the recent changes to Centrelink payments with regard to childcare subsidies. (To hear the full interview in Punjabi, click on the audio link above).
Speaking about general eligibility for all DHS services, Ms Aujla said, "Many Australians in need receive regular payments from Centrelink, either because they earn under a certain threshold, or have health issues because of which they can't earn, or because they are single parents, and in many other scenarios."
"Generally, these payments are available not only to Australian citizens, but also permanent residents and refugees. International students usually can't claim these payments unless their visa status changes."
"But we recommend that anyone who believes they are eligible for Centrelink payments, to speak to us or go to our website, and confirm if they qualify to receive payments."
Changes to Childcare Subsidy payments
Ms Aujla says the new subsidy claim program rolled out by DHS during the last financial year is simple and beneficial for families.
"It's much easier for us as staff members as well to process a single payment, rather than work out different components of childcare rebates which used to happen earlier."
She says, "It is most beneficial for families because now, they don't have to pay the childcare fees in full and claim back the rebate at the end of the year. Instead, we ask families to estimate their annual income in the coming financial year and based on that, we make a payment directly to the childcare provider."
"Around July-August we then 'balance' all accounts, to ensure that all payments are correct. In case of overpayment, we are required by law to recover the overpaid amount and in case of underpayment, we top up the amount we were short by."
"We request everyone to please inform DHS as soon as their salary changes, so we can reassess and avoid both underpayment and overpayment."
Ms Aujla, a fluent Punjabi speaker, says "We have well over 500 staff who speak in various languages. So we recommend that people contact us on 131 202 to find out about Centrelink payments and request to speak to a multilingual staff member who speaks a language of their choice."
"In case you need an interpreter for Medicare or Child support services, please call 13 14 50. Alternatively, you can visit our website www.humanservices.gov.au/your language. We have many informative documents translated in various languages including Punjabi."
Ms Aujla also had one final request for people using childcare subsidy for the first time this year.
"This is a time of learning for all of us - for families who maybe changing over from the old system as well as families who are eligible for the first time. Similarly, we at DHS are also in a learning phase. I request everyone to please wait for childcare subsidy information to be updated on your MyGov account, before calling Centrelink about eligibility and other questions. Our request is, please be patient."
To hear the full interview, please click on the link above.
Please note: This is the first interview in a regular series that SBS Punjabi will run in conjunction with DHS. If there is a particular topic you are interested in getting more information about, please email punjabi.program@sbs.com.au
