Frequently asked questions

When you complain to us about a Commonwealth government agency, how long it takes will depend on what we can do with your matter.

Enquiries

If you have an enquiry relating to private health insurance in general, you can contact our Office for general advice or you can visit privatehealth.gov.au for more information. We respond to 99 per cent of enquiries within 7 business days.

Complaints

The Commonwealth Ombudsman can deal with complaints from health fund members, health funds, private hospitals or medical practitioners. Complaints must be about a health insurance arrangement. The nature of your complaint will determine how quickly we can finalise your complaint.

We usually do not investigate a complaint until it has been raised with the organisation or provider involved. This gives the organisation or provider an opportunity to solve the matter first.

If your issue hasn’t already been escalated, our usual process is to refer your complaint to the organisation or provider for a quicker response (for complaints about Health Funds, the insurer will contact you within three business days from the time we contact the fund). It’s important that they have an opportunity to review their decision at a higher level, before we proceed with an investigation. Around 75 per cent of complaints received by this Office are finalised within 7 business days.

Some complaints require further investigation which might involve obtaining more information from you, the health insurer, a private hospital or a medical practitioner. We aim to finalise these cases within 30 days. This means in total, about 90 per cent of complaints are finalised within 30 days.

Some complaints need a thorough investigation, seeking detailed information from the organisation concerned. These usually take up to 90 days, although some are more complex and will take longer. We’ll keep you updated if this happens in your case. Overall, 95 per cent of complaints should be finalised within 90 days, and 99 per cent within 12 months.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman can investigate complaints from overseas students about registered private education providers, as well as complaints from domestic students about VET Student Loans training providers. How long it takes us to consider your matter will depend on the steps you have taken to engage with your education provider and the complexity of the issues you have raised.

In many cases we can respond to your complaint quickly without needing to ask for detailed information from your education provider. We may provide you with information about how to escalate your concerns with the education provider or we may refer your complaint directly to the education provider with a request for it to make direct contact with you. In some circumstances, we may make simple inquiries with your education provider to assist with this process. We aim to finalise these cases within 30 days. About 75 per cent of complaints are finalised in this way.

Often complaints require further research and we may need to contact the education provider with additional questions about how it has responded to your grievance. We aim to resolve these complaints within 60 days. About 85 per cent of complaints are finalised within 60 days.

Some complaints need a more thorough investigation. These usually take up to 90 days, although some are more complex and will take longer. We’ll keep you updated if this happens in your case. Overall, 90 per cent within of complaints should be finalised within 90 per cent, and 99 per cent within 12 months.

When you complain to us about a registered postal provider, including Australia Post, how long it takes will depend on what we can do with your matter.

In many cases we can resolve your complaint quickly without needing to make contact with the postal provider. We may refer your complaint back to the postal operator or suggest a different avenue for you to complain to instead. We aim to respond to these complaints within 14 days. About 65 per cent of complaints are finalised in this way.

Some complaints need further research and we may need to contact the postal operator. We aim to resolve these complaints within 45 days. This means that in total, about 85 per cent of complaints are finalised within 45 days.

Some complaints need a more thorough investigation. These usually take up to 90 days, although some are more complex and will take longer. We’ll keep you updated if this happens in your case. Overall, 95 per cent of complaints should be finalised within 90 days, and 99 per cent within 12 months.

Due to the large number of VET FEE-HELP complaints, it may take up to 12 months for your complaint to be assessed. We continue our arrangement with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to enable compulsory student repayments to be deferred. Please read our factsheet for further information.

When you make a report of abuse in Defence, how long the assessment process takes will depend on the nature and extent of the report, and the information provided. It may also depend on which era the abuse occurred in, what service it pertains to, and whether external parties were involved.

Each report is assessed, which requires seeking information from Defence. This part of the process usually takes six to eight weeks, but may extend depending on whether further information is requested. Overall, 80 per cent of assessments should be finalised within 9 months of the report being allocated to the Assessment Team. If the process is expected to take longer than this, you will be updated by your Liaison Officer.

When you request a review of a jurisdictional decision, or a preliminary view for a recommended reparation payment below the maximum amount, overall, 80 per cent of review requests should be finalised within 5 months of the request for review being received. If the process is expected to take longer than this, you will be updated by your Liaison Officer.

We aim to respond to 80 per cent of the inquiries we receive from agencies and potential disclosers about the public interest disclosure (PID) scheme within 7 days. However, it may take us up to 30 days to respond to more complex inquiries.

If an agency requests an extension of time to complete its investigation of a PID, we will decide the request within 10 business days and notify the agency and the discloser of our decision.

We can consider complaints about agencies’ handling of PIDs. We may request information from the complainant or the agency to assist with our assessment of a complaint. We aim to finalise 70 per cent of complaints within 90 days. If we need more information from the agency or the matter is more complex, it may take us longer to finalise a complaint. We expect that 90 per cent of complaints will be finalised within 180 days and 99 per cent within 12 months.

For further information on how long it takes for your complaint, click here.