The joys of dealing with Centrelink:

So it's a Sunday evening and I have just wasted an hour of my life trying to apply for my Youth Allowance payments.
When I spoke to Centrelink the other day, the lady on the phone told me that I could apply for Youth Allowance online. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong!!
I jump online thinking that I will be able to fill out a few forms and send them off to be processed. Not that simple...
They start off by asking me to register for online services, which also sounds simple. Create a user name, a password and five security questions.
Each time I try to create a password, I am told that this type of password is not allowed. They give me no instruction or explanation as to why I am not allowed to use this particular password but, luckily for me I have created passwords for other types of accounts that explain that you need to use so many letters, so many numbers, symbols etc.
Finally they accept my password, so I type in my security questions and answers, and try to proceed to the next step. A warning comes up: "Questions may not use leading or tailing spaces."
I sit staring at the screen for a minute wondering what this means before deciding to use one-word questions and answers, when the same warning comes up on my screen: "Questions may not use leading or tailing spaces."
After taking a few deep breaths, I scroll up and down the page looking for some sort of instruction. Turns out that your security questions must be questions that you, and you alone, know the answers to. Not that they had explained that anywhere before asking me to create my security questions!
So, finally I had completed that step. Next, they ask me to fill out my details; name, address, DOB etc. which I do. At the top of the page they have asked me for a Centrelink reference number (which I don't have), a child support number (which I don't have), and a Medicare card number. Note: Every other piece of information to be filled out is marked with an asterisk to mark that it is mandatory information, except for these three items.
I try to proceed to the next step and the page clears all of the information that I have just typed in, and says that I have not provided them with enough information.
I fill the form out again, this time including my Medicare number, when the same thing happens! The page clears all of the information that I have just typed, and tells me that I have not provided them with enough information.
Frustrated, I decide to go back to the home page, hoping that I have missed something, and I can just start again.
I try to type in the new user ID that they have just given me, along with the exact password that I have just created. The password keeps getting wiped off of the screen, and they tell me that I am using the incorrect user ID or password.
This is when I decide that I'll just type in all of the information again, and create a new account.
So I try again to register for online services but this time, when I click the link, it takes me to a page that tells me that I have just successfully logged out.
I try to go back to the previous page, when it tells me that the page is broken. When I hit refresh, it tells me the same thing. I then decide to go back to the home page and try again.
I get the same result four separate times before giving up. Looks like I will just have to waste another hour and a half on the phone to them tomorrow while I'm at work, and then another half an hour, at least, online, trying to lodge my claim.
Hopefully I have better luck tomorrow. Oh, the joys of dealing with Centrelink!

Lela xx