[Image by andrew j. cosgriff, Creative Commons]

We're currently in the age of internet over fibre. More and more services are moving digital and the government is attempting to do the same. Attempting, but not quite succeeding.

Centrelink encourages everyone to make an online account so that much of its services can be provided via the internet. It even has a mobile app so that people can use its services on the move. How convenient, you say? No, not really.

The problem with their online services is that whenever you make some kind of claim, you are required to provide supporting documents. There are three ways of submitting these documents: via snail mail, in person, or through online services. There is really no point in using online services if you don't also lodge the documents online (otherwise you might as well complete the whole process offline). The problem though, is that their online document lodgement service is a lottery at best. It just doesn't work when you need it to.

Recently, I had to renew my health care card. I received the notice online so rather than printing out the form and the supporting documents then physically going to the service centre in person to wait in line for ages, I decided to renew online. A decision which I regret now.

Filling in and submitting the online form itself went without a hitch. But I just could not upload the supporting documents. At first, I thought the service was down due to backend work. I kept trying at different times of the day, using different types of files, on different days. And I just kept getting the message that there was an unexpected error, or that the service was unavailable. I was considering the idea of going in person to submit my documents. But from the Department of Human Services webpage, I found out about two additional ways to submit documents online.

MyGov. The online service to rule all government online services. Unfortunately, I couldn't link my Centrelink account to my myGov account because the my name on the ATO database is wrong and I'd already linked my ATO account to myGov in order to lodge the tax return form online. So this option was out.

The only hope left for me then, was the Centrelink mobile app. The annoying thing with that app is that it doesn't accept files and instead requires me to take photos of documents. It's annoying because all the documents that I needed to provide to Centrelink were on my computer. I didn't want to print them out just to take photos of them. So instead I opened the files on my computer and photographed the screen.

I patted myself on the back for thinking up such a clever idea as I waited for the photos to upload. But I went through all that trouble for nothing, because of course, it just wouldn't upload. The document with my photos was saved into my 'vault' and the app told me to upload the document document later. Which I did. And it still told me to upload it later. After a while I became sick of the app telling to wait, and decided that there was no other choice.

So it was, that I found myself at Centrelink with the printed out forms and documents, waiting in line to talk to the woman with an iPad. At first she said that I only needed to drop off the supporting documents and leave, but when I told her that there had been some changes after I lodged the form online and that I had filled in a new form, she said someone else would need to talk to me.

I sat down and waited for my name to be called out. Surprisingly, I didn't need to wait too long, only about ten minutes. Not bad, I'd thought then. But then, even those short ten minutes ended up becoming completely waster minutes. Because the lady who talked to me afterwards just took the form and documents. She didn't need to talk to me. Meaning I didn't have to wait. Meaning the other woman gave me the wrong information and could've just taken my documents.

On the way home my father asked me how things had gone, whether I had to have an interview. I told him what had happened and he told me not to use online services next time. Handing in the forms in person was faster and they asked for less information that way. After my experience (and this hadn't even been the first time that the online document lodgement had failed me), I couldn't help but agree.

Online services were created to save time to those who use them, but they actually waste time. Instead, the only people who are saving time are those who go to the service centres in person, with the centres being quite empty nowadays due to people wasting time on online services.