Services Australia has added thousands more staff, more than halved the claims backlog and reduced call waiting times, according to figures released by the government.

Services Australia says outstanding Medicare and Centrelink claims were cut by 66 per cent at 21 July, from 1.35 million in early February, to around 460,000.

Average claim processing times have also improved across most payments in the new financial year compared to last, according to services Australia figures.

Processing times for paid parental leave Medicare Newborn enrolments were down 84 per cent from 25 days to four, while Medicare online account claims have been cut by 82 per cent from 11 days to two. Times for JobSeeker claims were reduced 73 per cent from 22 to six days.

As of July 21 the agency was also answering Centrelink calls around six minutes faster, and Medicare customer calls nine minutes faster, than in January.

Centrelink lines were answering most customers in 15 minutes at 318 call centres across Australia.

The government says it added 3,000 permanent additional staff late last year who have processed 1.4 million claims and answered 1.9 million calls.

Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten says there’s been a marked improvement in processing times on not only last year, but also compared to pre-COVID times.

“This effort has delivered over 890,000 outstanding Centrelink and Medicare claims for Australians in need,” Mr Shorten said.

“There’s more to do, particularly in processing complex claims, but we’re making significant inroads across the board.”

The government committed $1.8 billion in the 2024-25 Budget to bolstering service delivery, which includes funding for 4,030 staff in 2024-25 and 3,530 staff in 2025-26.