Mark Butler said he had not been aware of the issue.
Health minister Mark Butler has learned that cold callers seem to have details for Support At Home package recipients and are targeting them with “offers”, and he’s promised to look into it.
The minister was speaking on Adelaide radio station FIVEAA’s Mornings with Graeme Goodings show on Friday when a listener called in to say she’d received cold calls offering to improve her Support At Home package funding level.
“I don’t know if you’ve been aware,” Jane told the minister.
“I’m a SAH recipient level three that’s been grandfathered. Just recently in the last two, three weeks, I’ve had three calls, cold calling, to sell and promote a rise in my level of funding and to help me make sure I’m getting the best out of my funding.
“Now, these are cold calls, a bit like somebody ringing you up to say, ‘Oh, we can offer you a better deal for your electricity.’ Are you aware of that happening?” she asked the minister.
“No, I’m not, Jane,” Mr Butler replied.
“I’m a little puzzled as to how these people cold calling you would get your phone number and know that you were a recipient of a Support at Home package.”
Jane, who managed her funds herself and said she was always careful not to run out, called her provider to see what was going on.
“So somewhere out there is my name, and I have what I’d call an official name and my known name, which is Jane. Somewhere out there, they’ve got my official name, cold calling. And there’s that gap of time between when I pick up the call to when I’m going to speak to somebody,” said Jane.
“The first two times I didn’t really – wasn’t quick enough. But I spoke to my provider, and he said to me, well, next time they call, Jane, see if you can get a little bit more information out of them, which yesterday I had a call. And I was able to gather a little bit more information, because the person who said to me, ‘Oh, well, you’ve got my number, if you wanted to make any changes, just give us a call and we’ll facilitate those for you’.”
Jane told the minister that pensioners were “living at the moment in a fraught anxiety period of time since the changes have occurred since November”.
“This was out of the blue, and it has caused me anxiety. And I need to find an answer because one, I don’t want these calls, and two, I’m looking after my own self. What about some other aged person or older person who gets coerced, I’m going to use that word, into changing and creating more angst for themselves?” she said to the minister.
Mr Butler said he was worried for Jane and others who might be receiving the calls.
“I want to get to the bottom of this… we’re happy to contact you if you’re happy to do that and help you chase this down,” said Mr Butler.
“Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I’d not heard that before, and I’ve got to say, I’m pretty concerned that there are people out there using, well, first of all, getting their hands on the phone numbers of people like you, Jane, I’m sure many others, and starting to use them to cold call people.
Related
TMR contacted Minister Butler’s office, asking if they’d dug any deeper into working out how providers were finding the details of recipients. We didn’t receive a response prior to our deadline.
Callers also raised the recent changes to private health fund subsidies being revoked for some seniors, with one caller telling the minister, “You will pay for that at the polls”, another asking, “We’re the backbone of this country, so why should we be punished?” and the program host saying, “You can justify it, but there’s no doubt a lot of pensioners are going to be hurt by this”.
The minister has been very focused on aged care recently. On ABC Radio National on Thursday, Mr Butler said the outgoing Inspector-General of Aged Care, Natalie Siegel-Brown, made criticisms and claims in National Press Club address on Wednesday that had not previously been raised with his office.
The Office of the Inspector-General rejected the assertion, telling TMR that Ms Siegel-Brown had written to Minister Butler and DoHDA in March and met with aged care minister Sam Rae in June, which included discussion of the information referred to in the National Press Club Address. In addition, the office told TMR all the data in the address came from sources published by DoHDA.
