It hasn’t been smooth sailing for every West Australian trying to nab their $100 fuel support voucher on the first day the payment was made available.
Comments flooded the WA Government’s Facebook announcement on Wednesday, with many complaining about the lengthy verification process and difficulty navigating the ServiceWA app.
One person wrote: “Good luck trying to get onto it. The sites take you around in circles. Then says you can download form and submit by post, of which you need to also supply bank statements with it.”
Another said: “The WA Service app wants you to sign into myID. And you just go round in circles getting nowhere.”
A third commenter wrote: “How on earth can a near 80-year-old me who is not that tech savvy claim this $100?”
More than 128,000 people had claimed their fuel support payments as of Wednesday afternoon, totalling $12.8 million handed out since the program launched at 9am.
Anyone with a valid Western Australian driver’s licence can apply for the one-off payment, including holders of learner, provisional and extraordinary licences.
The ATO said in a statement that some myID users experienced intermittent issues for a short period of time, at approximately 11.30am AEST.
This issue was resolved, and users were able to access myID and use their participating online services. ATO said its systems remained stable, secure and resilient.
Apart from via the app, there were alternative methods to claim. A form can be downloaded online to be mailed in physically, or you can access the forms at ServiceWA help desks at public libraries.
For app users, the claims can only be made after users verify their digital identity — which some people clearly objected to.
“No way I’m getting a digital ID in order to be given a pissy hundred bucks. Keep your money!!!” one person posted.
Another questioned why applicants using the paper claim form were required to provide a bank statement.
“Why does it need a bank statement for manual form claims? Your account details is all that is needed. This is an invasion of privacy. Maybe two forms of ID such as licence and Medicare card but no need to see a bank statement. What do others think?”
Others reported issues verifying identity documents.
“Anyone else having problems with trying to make the ID to standard? It keeps saying invalid for birth certificate because you write it the way they ask and it keeps coming up with invalid,” one user wrote.
The State Government maintained there were no such issues reported with the Service WA app even with a large influx of users looking to claim their cash.
Assistant Transport Minister Stojkovski said work had been done beforehand to mitigate issues.
“It’s always a thing when we come to doing these rollouts, we want to make sure people can access it as quickly as possible,” she said.
‘We have done a lot of work to ensure that the website and the app will be able to cope, but if it’s taking a little time, just keep trying.”
Billed as a cost of living relief measure to respond to rising fuel costs, the $100 fuel voucher can actually be spent however recipients want.
That includes donating the money to charity, an option the government built in after a wave of public backlash over the budget sweetener when it was announced.
On Wednesday, about 400 people took the auto-donate option, with $40,000 going to charities including Telethon, Foodbank WA and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
“We know that West Australians are a generous bunch, and we know that there are those who have said that they don’t need the $100 support fuel support payment,” Ms Stojkovski said.
“They don’t need to claim, but they can claim, but also pass it on, pay it forward by donating it to a list of charities, which are available in the drop down options in the Service WA app.”
For anyone planning to use the cash on fuel, the bump comes at an unfortunate time with the Federal Government’s discount on fuel excise reducing from 32 cents per litre to 16 cents.
It did little to dampen the spirits however of new driver Eden Campbell, 17, who said she’ll definitely be using her $100 to fill the tank.
“I know some people might not be spending it on fuel, but honestly, I will be spending it on fuel,” she said.
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