One of the Cook Government’s flagship cost of living measures is taking up to 10 weeks to be paid.
The government has confirmed applicants for the $100 fuel support payment using paper forms were waiting between nine and 10 weeks from posting to receive their payment.
That means anyone wanting their $100 payment ahead of Christmas who can’t access or refuse to use the Service WA or online application forms would have had to lodge their form two weeks ago.
“Applicants should generally allow approximately nine to 10 weeks from posting their application to receiving their payment, with postage potentially taking longer in some regional locations,” a spokeswoman said.
More than one million of the 2.3 million eligible driver’s licence holders in WA have applied for their payment and $110 million has been paid out since the scheme opened on July 1.
About 10 full-time equivalent staff at the Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure are processing around 3000 paper applications per day.
The spokeswoman said additional staff had been deployed, and were working overtime and on weekends to process applications, with additional resourcing to be implemented this week.
Last month Treasurer Rita Saffioti told parliament 96 per cent of applications have been made via the Service WA app, meaning between 40,000 and 50,000 applications were via post. The Service WA and online applications are approved within one to two days.
The Cook Government set aside $198 million for the fuel support payment, with $11 million of that for “administration” of the scheme.
Opposition transport spokesman Steve Martin said the state was entering an absurd situation where families will be starting to think about Christmas while cost-of-living supports promised to them in May have failed to materialise.
“Despite allocating $11 million to administer the scheme, as of the end of September, 41 per cent of the allocated funds have still not been paid and less than half of WA drivers have received a payment,” he said.
“The government had no trouble finding the time and money to send taxpayer-funded letters from the premier promoting the payment during the Secret Harbour by-election, but somehow can’t find the resources to actually process the applications.
“Perhaps the government should redirect some of their spin doctors to help the 10 staff work through the mountain of 50,000 or so paper applications.”
The payments formed part of about $1 billion in cost-of living measures including the WA student assistance payments and the $2.80 public transport cap.
As of October 15 more than $750,000 in fuel support payments had been made to charities.
