Services Australia plans to take on an extra 7400 staff as it ramps up its capacity to process JobSeeker claims from more than a million people expected to be made unemployed by the COVID-19 crisis.
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The agency has already added 6500 people to its call and processing centres, including 2900 redeployed from other parts of the organisation and 700 public servants drawn from other parts of the APS, and intends to recruit an extra 3800 to meet demand.
Services Australia spokesman Hank Jongen said that in the past two weeks alone the agency had answered more than a million calls and processed a record number of claims.
"We're taking every possible step to support Australians at this most difficult time," Mr Jongen said. "We're rapidly employing thousands of people across all states and territories to get much needed financial support to people quickly."
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The agency was hit by a huge spike in demand last month when severe social distancing restrictions forced thousands of businesses to scale down or close their operations, throwing hundreds of thousands out of work.
The demand for Services Australia assistance is set to grow even further, with Treasury estimating that the unemployment rate could shoot up to 10 per cent in the June quarter, making a record 1.4 million people jobless.
Mr Jongen said that since the crisis hit the agency had taken on an additional 6500 people to staff its calls centres and processing functions, and had plans to take on more.
"The agency is working to bring another 3800 non-APS staff on board to further boost capacity," he said. "Many of these people have previous call centre and processing experience and have found themselves out of work due to the current situation."
The recruiting drive is part of a broader APS response to the pandemic that has involved the redeployment of thousands of public servants into high priority areas, including the transfer of 1000 Australian Taxation Office staff from debt collection to help handle a huge increase in inquiries.
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