CANBERRA: The Human Services Department of Australia has launched 12 app for smartphones in connection with the medical care and guidance of the people. These apps are first ever apps of this kind and department disclo0sed that till there were 3.7 million downloads by the people and they are expecting over 36 million downloads of the same app in near future.
But the apps, which are linked to the MyGov portal, have been panned by users with the Express Plus Medicare and Express Plus Job Seekers coming in for the worst of the online ire.
But Human Services defended its apps on Tuesday, saying 3.7 million versions had been downloaded and they had been used to process 36 million Centrelink and Medicare transactions.
The department says the apps are the first of their kind in the world and, despite criticism, were improving all the time.
Express Plus Medicare is described as a “horribly non-functional app”, “useless”, “horrible” and “truly awful” on iTunes’ online user reviews.
Some users reported satisfaction with Express Plus Medicare, which can process Medicare claims straight from a mobile handset, others said it was a good app when it worked, and more users described it as a 50-50 proposition.
The problems with Job Seeker App had more serious consequences, with users reporting being told by Centrelink staff to leave the office and use the technology to manage their benefits but then losing money when it did not work.
“My problem is the same as everyone else, this app has cost me the last 4 Centrelink payments because of not being able to report and missing out on payments until they work it all out.”
Another claimant reported Express Plus Job Seeker working well, but only some of the time.
“When it works, it works OK for a government app, unfortunately 80 per cent of the time it says ‘We are currently experiencing technical issues, please try again later’,” the user wrote.
Another Centrelink client condemned the system as “utter rubbish”.
“Twice now I’m told by Centrelink to re-install the Job Seekers app, and yet the same problem over and over seems to be continuing…nothing but white screen,” they wrote.
