8 hours ago, scorecard said:

I submitted my completed OAP aplication at a Centrelinkk office. It was submiteed diectly (by machine) to Centrelink Canberra.

 

Then the Centrelink officer (very pleasant, good listener, focused, helpful) asked if I still had A Medicare card. I responded No. 

 

She continued "I can use the information you've given me in the last few minutes to try to find your Medicare number". She couldn't find it, then said "Medicare don't like to issue 2 Medicare numbers to the same person, please give me an approximate year of the last time you every used the card". I responded "35 + years ago".

 

She responded "That's why I can't find it, It's buried deep in ancient history. Never mind I can give that info to Medicare on an internal communication".  She did that quickly and 1 minute later a Medicare advice came out of her printer and she gave me the letter''.

It gave my full name and a new Medicare number. The Centerlink lady then said "use this number and show this letter if you do need to go to a hospital etc., or doctor and a new plastic Medicare card will arrive at your recorded address within 2 weeks". 

 

In fact it arrived 4 days later.  

 

Back to the OAP submisssion discussion in bullet points:

- I submitted on at the local Centrelink office.

- A pleasant focused young man called me 14 days later.

- He advised that my OA application was acccepted, no further question. approved at the basic rate for OAP and for the supplement allowance.

- He asked me if I could get a piece f blank papr and a pen. I did that, and he continued... I'm going to give you a number of relevant details, Please write down each point / detail and ask any questionyou have, then draw line under that point and we'll move on to the next point.

- Summarizing: the officer advised "the first payment, backdated to the application submission date will be in your nominated bank account by lunch time tomorow. An e.mail will arrive later today with all of these details and an easy to understand calculation of how the backdated money has been calculated.

 

Then "Any questions tomorrow call me quickly"

 

 

Current pension application wait times. 

 

https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/latest-news/pension-wait-has-just-got-better