MyGov outage leaves Australians unable to access Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support online services

Hundreds of Australians have reportedly been denied access to government services, including Centrelink and Medicare, through myGov due to technical issues.

Over one thousand reports of outages were made to DownDetector and some on social media from about 3pm on Monday.

The outage mainly affected login attempts but 35 per cent of reports said the app and website were also affected.

“Centrelink online account, Medicare online account, Child Support online account and the associated express plus apps are currently experiencing intermittent issues,” a myGov app login page alert said on Monday.

“We apologise for any inconvenience.”

The myGov app presented a message to some people attempting to access Centrelink accounts, which said the “service is not currently available for view”.

A message noting “there has been a critical system error” was presented to some trying to access their Medicare account via the app.

The website simply showed other users an “access denied” message.

“All they can really do is assure you that it’s not just you, (that) things will be okay, and it’ll be fixed soon enough ... some people have probably been legitimately terrified though because the message is like ‘ACCESS DENIED’,” one person posted online.

“I’m hitting an ‘access denied’ loop ... Calling to resolve, but I assume also half the country is also calling at this very moment.”

“Trying to report our income. MyGov not working, Express Plus Centrelink mobile app not working. Telephone reporting line screwing up,” another tweeted on X.

“How are we supposed to report? We need our money tomorrow, we have no food among other things.”

Issues persist for second day

Services Australia updated Facebook about 8pm on Monday night and said “most services have now been restored” but noted, “some customers may still be experiencing issues accessing Medicare services”.

“Most people were still able to report income, and payments are not affected,” the Services Australia Facebook update said.

“If anyone is facing financial hardship as a result of not being able to report income today, please contact us tomorrow and our staff will assist you.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.”

Services Australia issued an almost identical update just before 3pm on Tuesday, claiming the issues had now been resolved and urging customers to try accessing services again.

The update clarified that financially impacted customers can make contact for help through their “usual payment line” or through a “service centre so our staff can help you”.

Though the DownDetector outage report spike settled by 6pm on Monday, smaller numbers of reports continued to flow in throughout the night and into Tuesday.

Customers also continued to report issues via social media about difficulties accessing the Centrelink website and various myGov app services.

Below the Services Australia Facebook update, customers on Tuesday posted screenshots of Centrelink login authentication errors, and desperate inquiries to the Services Australia social media team about income reporting dates missed due to the ongoing technical issues.

They slammed the ongoing issues as “frustrating” and “appalling”.

By 11.30am on Tuesday, Services Australia again acknowledged in a Facebook post that “intermittent issues” were still affecting Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support online accounts and the Express Plus mobile applications.

“We’re working urgently to resolve this and encourage customers to keep an eye on our account for updates,” Services Australia said on Tuesday.

Anyone still experiencing access issues on Tuesday afternoon was told by Services Australia just before 3pm: “Let us know and we can troubleshoot with you to resolve them.”

7NEWS understands Services Australia is investigating the cause of the reported outage, and will continue to update those affected by the reported outages on Facebook.