This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Lines stretched outside Centrelink offices for a second day on Tuesday while the MyGov website that allows people to claim JobSeeker benefits once again crashed as thousands of newly unemployed Australians sought access to welfare payments.

As the social services minister, Anne Ruston, revealed that more than 123,000 people had tried to access the website at once on Tuesday morning, many other Australians were queuing outside Centrelink offices, with the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis deepening.

The government services minister, Stuart Robert, who is responsible for Centrelink and the MyGov website, admitted on Sydney radio on Tuesday the government had not been adequately prepared.

Stuart Robert’s incompetence on MyGov should accelerate his own social isolation | Katharine Murphy Read more

“Again my bad not realising the sheer scale of the decision on Sunday night by national leaders that literally saw hundreds of thousands, maybe a million, people unemployed overnight,” he told 2GB.

The lines, which stretched around blocks again on Tuesday, were in response to the government’s decision to boost unemployment benefits by $550 a fortnight from 27 April and to mass losses of jobs and income as the Covid-19 crisis forces society and the economy to grind to a halt. They come as the government institutes increasingly strict social distancing measures.

jack begbie (@jackbegbie) At 8am, the queues at Redfern centrelink are already enormous. This really, really sucks. #COVID19au pic.twitter.com/dfSWJiZ8KG

Hannah Sinclair (@hansinclair9) Centrelink Bondi Junction. The scenes are the same as yesterday. Hundreds of people in line again.. newly unemployed. The first got here at 5am. Many have waited in the rain. @9NewsSyd #COVID19Aus #centrelink pic.twitter.com/OUqlE7EKt4

KristySexton-McGrath (@kristysexton) Incredible line up at the #Cairns Centrelink office. Many of whom are tourism workers, suddenly out of a job. ⁦@abcnews⁩ #Covid_19australia pic.twitter.com/GNl3iBapIm

Charlotte Mortlock (@CMMortlock) I’m no scientists but these Centrelink queues are fast becoming “mass gatherings”. We need more info, simply explained, EVERYWHERE. Hire more social media people. Everyone is confused by every policy, state & federal. It’s a dangerous concoction on top of fear and frustration. pic.twitter.com/JYOniK2DIO

The government has insisted that people do not need to attend Centrelink offices to make a welfare claim, but many first-time applicants have reported mixed messages.

Ruston said the government has expanded capacity for the MyGov website so that it could now deal with 150,000 concurrent users. Despite that, many reported that they were unable to use the website again on Tuesday.

In a bid to clear the massive lines at Centrelink, Ruston also confirmed the government had changed processes so first-time claimants could get a Customer Reference Number by calling Centrelink. The number is required to make a claim for JobSeeker Payment.

But some people said they were unable to get through over the phone and were instead met with an automated message telling them to call back later.

“When I ring the phone number, I get an automated service,” Justin McMaugh, 44, told Guardian Australia. “I yell whatever I can down the line, hopefully they interpret it right, I wait, and then, ‘All our operators are busy, call back later’. You can’t get anywhere.”

McMaugh said he began queuing outside the Centrelink at Campsie about 8am on Tuesday and was seen about 10.30am.

“The line was already about three blocks long,” he said. It snaked around the whole building.”

McMaugh works as a roadie and had about $30,000 worth of work over three months lined up. “All wiped out in 48 hours,” he said.

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“All they are doing is just trying to get you into the system, then they give you paperwork and send you home to sort it out yourself,” he said.

“The staff were so tense, they shouldn’t be there,” he added. “I feel so bad for them. The government should just put money in people’s bank accounts and let us sort it out in a few months.”

Labor has lashed Robert for his handling of the crisis, including his incorrect claim that MyGov technical issues on Monday were caused by a DDoS cyber attack.

“I probably should have waited for the investigation before jumping the gun,” Robert said on Tuesday morning.

The government has expanded Centrelink opening hours to cater for the extra demand, but staff numbers at shopfronts have been reduced due to social distancing measures.

Robert told people who were unable to access the MyGov website that they should try again later.

Labor’s government services spokesman, Bill Shorten, said it was not sufficient that Robert had prepared Centrelink and MyGov for “foreseeable demand”.

“Queues around the nation, crashing websites and so-called phone ‘help lines’ that are understaffed and with hours-long waiting times are not good enough,” he said.

The MyGov outages are also likely to have affected existing welfare recipients who need to report online to fulfil their mutual obligations. Welfare payments can be temporarily suspended or delayed if they fail to do so.

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert said: “The government has a moral obligation to guarantee that people already on Centrelink will not get their payment suspended if they can’t report online or complete mutual obligations while Centrelink is experiencing this unprecedented surge in people needing its services.

“This is why I have been calling and continue to call for the minister to suspend all mutual obligations. The system is not set up to handle a health and economic crisis like this,” Siewert said.

The government has so far declined to fully suspend mutual obligations or to promise that no payments will be suspended during the crisis.