People affected by COVID-19 do Not Need to Queue at Centrelink.
From 25th March 2020, Centrelink have made it easier for those people currently losing their income due to the coronavirus, to be able to register their claim, without going to a Centrelink Office or spending hours on hold on the telephone.
All you need to do is log onto your my.gov.au account and click the Intention to Claim button.
Centrelink will the contact you.
This is important as the date that you register is the date that any benefits will be paid from.
That is the information on the news today 25th March 2020, and I checked it, to see if it was there on the my.gov.au website, and it was, as shown by the screenshot above.
Once you have registered, you will receive this message:
You are registered
You’ve registered your intention to make a claim. We’ll contact you to let you know what the next steps are.
We’re sorry, this may take some time due to a high volume of claims.
You only need to register once.
If you’re eligible for a payment, you’ll be back-paid from today.
Obviously this only applies if you have a my.gov.au account already, and you have it linked to either the ATO or Medicare, as that linking gives Centrelink all of your relevant ID and previous incomes.