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Katie Woolf spoke with Services Australia Financial Information Officer Justin Bott · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolvan three point sixty online at Mix one
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: O four nine dot com.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You well, as we've been speaking about throughout the morning,
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  Speaker 2: we know that job Keeper came to an end yesterday
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  Speaker 2: and the Chief Minister, Michael Gunnet confirmed on the show
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  Speaker 2: a little bit earlier for us this morning that around
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  Speaker 2: two thousand Northern Territory businesses were still on job Keeper.
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  Speaker 2: As of the beginning of March, around seven and a
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  Speaker 2: half thousand jobs were still being supported by job Keeper,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: So no doubt this is going to have quite a
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  Speaker 2: big impact on many Territorians. Now joining us on the
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  Speaker 2: line from Services Australia Financial Information Officer Justin Bott, good
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  Speaker 2: morning to you, Justin, Good.
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  Speaker 1: Morning, Katie, thank you so much for having you.
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  Speaker 2: Justin just talk us through. For those out there listening
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  Speaker 2: who don't really know who Services Australia are or what
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  Speaker 2: exactly they do, talk us through us for sure.
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  Speaker 1: So Services Australia is the agency that is responsible for
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  Speaker 1: looking after Centerlink, Medicare and the Child Support Agency. So
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: when you think of Centerlink, you think of Services Australia
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  Speaker 1: because we're the ones that will look after it as
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  Speaker 1: part of our requirement. So that means that when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to circumstances ideas when it comes to people looking
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  Speaker 1: at what sort of payments that they may need. That's
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  Speaker 1: why I have Services Australia is absolutely there to help
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  Speaker 1: them out.
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  Speaker 2: And there is no doubt that there's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a lot of Territorians today, particularly businesses and individuals who
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  Speaker 2: are feeling a bit worried about the fact that job
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  Speaker 2: Keeper has come to an end. Are there certain support
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  Speaker 2: services out there that they can go to or different
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  Speaker 2: you know, different places they can go to for more
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  Speaker 2: information and help if that is something that they need.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, Katie and yeah, we are absolutely there to
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  Speaker 1: try and help people to make sure that they know
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  Speaker 1: what they need to do from here. So the first
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  Speaker 1: thing that I want the Territorians to know that if
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  Speaker 1: they are affected because the end of job Keeper, so
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  Speaker 1: if their income has gone down, they might have maybe
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  Speaker 1: lost one of their jobs, or if they are now
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  Speaker 1: actively looking for work and Services Australia and our website
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  Speaker 1: that is the best place for them to go first
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  Speaker 1: up for not just to work out what payments they
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  Speaker 1: might be eligible for, but we also have other support
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  Speaker 1: services through our Social Work services and the Financial Information
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  Speaker 1: Service guys like are. But if you are contact and
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  Speaker 1: you want to find out about what payment you might
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  Speaker 1: be eligible for, the best place to go is our website,
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  Speaker 1: which is Services Australia dot covers that I use. So
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  Speaker 1: that's all on words Services Australia dot on in that
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  Speaker 1: little search box at the front there. What I want
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  Speaker 1: you to type in is need a payment. So if
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  Speaker 1: you type in need a payment as a search function,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to bring up a tool that you will
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  Speaker 1: then be able to go through. It's going to ask
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  Speaker 1: you questions about what your circumstances are, what it is
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  Speaker 1: that you're going through at the moment, whether it be
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  Speaker 1: work related or maybe he else related, and then give
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  Speaker 1: you an idea of what you may be eligible for
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  Speaker 1: not only may be eligible for this payment, but also
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  Speaker 1: what you need to do to start that process. I
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  Speaker 1: don't get on those payments and so justin.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds as though for some Territorians there may still
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  Speaker 2: be other things that they're potentially eligible for if they
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  Speaker 2: have got a big drop in their income.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So. The main payment for people who either
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  Speaker 1: their income is reduced or they're now looking for work
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  Speaker 1: is either the job keeper payment generally for those who
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  Speaker 1: are looking for work, or for if you're under twenty
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  Speaker 1: two years of age, there's youth allowance yep, so youth
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  Speaker 1: allowance for people that are looking for work. But also importantly,
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  Speaker 1: it may be that you might not qualify for other
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  Speaker 1: of those because your partners thinker may be too high
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  Speaker 1: or whatever. But if you're getting family tax benefit as
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  Speaker 1: well a change in your income, you need to give
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  Speaker 1: us a change in your estimate of your income because
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  Speaker 1: that could make a difference to both either the rate
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  Speaker 1: to family tax benefit that you're getting from us, but
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  Speaker 1: also the childcare subsidy that you may be receiving from
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  Speaker 1: US as well. So there's a there's not just maybe
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  Speaker 1: applying for payments, but it might be things like the
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  Speaker 1: family tax benefit that you're already getting for your children
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  Speaker 1: could be a new rate for that as well. So
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  Speaker 1: that's also going to our website. Now that means that
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  Speaker 1: you want to go through your MyGov account. So that's
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  Speaker 1: the other thing that we want to get territories to
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  Speaker 1: do when they're able to, is to actually, if they
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  Speaker 1: haven't already, they need to register for a my gov
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  Speaker 1: account because it is absolutely the quickest and easiest way
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  Speaker 1: of dealing with services Australia. So to set that up,
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  Speaker 1: you go to my gov which is my dot gov
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  Speaker 1: dot a user at my dot gov dot au and
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  Speaker 1: that will tell you how to create yourself a micve
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  Speaker 1: account if you haven't done that already, and that's a
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  Speaker 1: very quick process, is quite easy. It's a few questions
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  Speaker 1: and then you're up and running. And then once you've
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  Speaker 1: done that, you go into your mind account and what
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  Speaker 1: you're going to find there the big button that says
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  Speaker 1: government support for coronavirus. If you click on that, that
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  Speaker 1: will take you through the nuts and bolts of actually
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  Speaker 1: applying for a payment right, whether it be that job seeker,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be the youth allowance. Yeah, and the other
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  Speaker 1: important message for territories is that you can actually even
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  Speaker 1: if your job hasn't stopped today but you think that
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  Speaker 1: it might be an issue in the future, you can
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  Speaker 1: actually apply for those payments up to thirteen weeks before
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  Speaker 1: you before you become eligible, so you can apply early.
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  Speaker 1: You could start now for something that might occur in
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  Speaker 1: the future, so that it's all taken care of when
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  Speaker 1: you're actually become eligible and it's much easy for you.
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  Speaker 2: Then, well, it sounds as though Services Australia is trying
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  Speaker 2: their best to make sure that people potentially coming off
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  Speaker 2: the job keeper payments are able to try their best
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  Speaker 2: to get other support. Are you expecting an influx of
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  Speaker 2: people online today?
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  Speaker 1: We don't actually know there are. The Treasury has estimated
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  Speaker 1: that there might be one hundred, two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand people that may be applying for payments, and you've
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  Speaker 1: actually given the figures for the potentially for the territorium.
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  Speaker 1: At this point, we don't actually know how many people
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  Speaker 1: are going. What we can to you is that from
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  Speaker 1: the coronavirus pandemic when it started, we did a lot
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  Speaker 1: of work with our online functionality to make that my
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  Speaker 1: GAV be stronger and more able to deal with larger numbers. So,
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  Speaker 1: just to give you a quick example, normally, in a
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  Speaker 1: normal year we would have about five hundred or so
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  Speaker 1: thousand people that would apply for job Seeker. In the
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  Speaker 1: first six to nine months of the pandemic, that was
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  Speaker 1: one point seven million people applied for Job Seeker and
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  Speaker 1: we had to get that my GAB up and strong
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  Speaker 1: enough to deal with that large increase in numbers, and
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  Speaker 1: we also did an awful lot of work can. We've
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  Speaker 1: people from other government agencies to help out on our
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  Speaker 1: phones as well, so for those people who aren't it capable,
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  Speaker 1: who don't have that my Gov capacity, then they're always
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  Speaker 1: willing for them to give us a call if they
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  Speaker 1: need to. They can visit our offices if they need to,
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  Speaker 1: but the most effective, most quickest and easiest way is
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  Speaker 1: to still do it online when they can.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, justin Bosh.
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  Speaker 2: Well of course from Services Australia Financial Information Officer. Good
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  Speaker 2: to speak with you. I appreciate you giving us those
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  Speaker 2: tips and bit of advice.
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  Speaker 1: Katie has been great.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you,