如何從澳洲社會福利聯絡中心取得新生兒的客戶參考號 How to get a CRN for the newborn from Centrelink
因為肉拉明年二月中要開始上托兒所，托兒所在錄取信裡(是的，托兒所給了我一封錄取信以確認我不再當肉拉的奴隸時她有托兒所可以去)讓我打電話到澳洲社會福利聯絡中心(以下簡稱福聯)去幫她申請客戶參考號，這樣托兒所才能在出帳的時候直接跟福聯申請我們的托兒補貼，我或許可以少付一些。
Because Nola will start daycare from Feb next year, so the daycare told me to call Centrelink to acquire a Customer Reference Number (CRN) for Nola in the offer letter they sent through (yes, daycare gave me an offer letter to confirm Nola’s got somewhere to go when I can’t be her slave no more). With Nola’s CRN, I might entitle some Child Care Subsidy (CCS) when the daycare bill us.
而且我在線上也找不到相關的新生兒申請資訊，所以我決定打電話。Also I couldn’t find any relevant information to get CRN for a newborn, so I decided to call.
幫猴生申請客戶參考號已經是上輩子的事了。我一點也記不起是怎麼申請到他的客戶參考號，想當然爾我照托兒所在錄取信裡的建議打了電話給福聯。雖然我有預期要等上一段時間，但是整整等了九十分鐘後最後電服人員說，喔，妳要線上申請喔。
It was a lifetime ago since I applied for the son’s CRN. Obviously I don’t recall what I did to get his CRN, therefore I called Centrelink as suggseted in the daycare’s offer letter. I had expected to wait for a while, but after waiting for 90-minute, the customer service representative said from the other side of the phone, “oh, you need to apply it online.”
靠，如果要線上申請為什麼你們網址上沒寫?為什麼要讓人等九十分鐘可是什麼忙也幫不上?福聯的關鍵績效指標是怎麼設的啊?
WTH, if I need to apply CRN online why couldn’t Centrelink just note that on its website? Why did Centrelink make people wait for over 90 minutes and cannot do a thing to help? How do Centrelink set the KPI?
電服人員跟我說，妳要在線上申請補貼，一旦申請了妳可以再打電話過來，我們這邊也不過十分鐘的時間就可以幫妳處理，給妳小孩一個客戶參考號。我說，她還沒要上托兒所，我沒有款項申請托兒補貼啊?也許對妳來說這是十分鐘可以解決的事，可是我等了整整九十分鐘才等到和妳說上一句話，對我來說這不是十分鐘的事。
The customer service representative told me that “you have to make a claim online, and once the claim has been applied online, you can call back and we can do it together over the phone — it will only take 10 minutes to process, and can get your child a CRN.” I told her that my daughter has not started daycare yet, so I don’t have any payments to apply for CCS. Also, it might be a 10-minute process for you, but it took me whole 90 minutes to get to talk to you. It ain’t as efficient for me as you’ve claimed.
最後我還是得線上申請補貼，基本上是點入福聯主頁目上的"Make a claim or view claims status”，新開始一個補貼申請然後填寫家族相關資訊。被扶養人只要在未來二十六周內開始托兒服務都可以申請補貼，基本上就算是申請客戶參考號吧?
At the end I still need to apply a claim online, basically you click on "Make a claim or review claims status" on Centrelink’s main page, starting a new claims and filling out family information. You can kick off the claim process as long as the dependents start care services within the next 26 weeks, so it’s like applying for CRN?
你知道澳洲在二零二二年大約註冊了三十萬的新生兒嗎?咱們說這三十萬新生兒裡只有三分之一的母親們和我一樣得了懷孕腦，得和我一樣打這個令人痛苦萬分的電話最後被告知要線上申請補助才能拿到新生兒的客戶參考號，那這就是十萬通電話；如果每通電話得等上九十分鐘，那整個澳洲一共等了九百萬分鐘。浪-費-了-九-百-萬-分-鐘。真的嗎?福聯為什麼不這樣的資訊放在他們的網站上?這樣簡單的資訊分享可以大大提升至少十萬個新手媽媽的生活水平，至少她們不用在已經睡眠不足、每天和尖叫的娃娃打交道的情況下，還得苦苦等著福聯客服跟她們說，掛掉電話，線上申請後明天再重新打電話來吧。
Do you know that there were roughly 300,000 newborns registered in Australia in 2022? Say, there were just 1/3 of those newborns’ mums who had baby brain like me and had to go through what I’d gone through to get a CRN, then that’s 100,000 calls; with 90-minute wait time per call, that’s 9,000,000 minutes waited. NINE-ANNOYING-MILLION-MINUTES WASTED. Really? Can’t Centrelink put the information on how to apply a newborn’s CRN on its website? Including this info on the website is such a simple update which can hugely improve at least 100,000 new mums' lives when they are already sleep deprived and have to deal with their screaming babies at the background — because at least they don’t have to wait painfully on the call, then told to do this online and call back tomorrow.
說實話我也不知道我的線上申請到底能不能幫我拿到肉拉的客戶參考號，因為線上申請系統跟我說預計十二月底才會處理我的申請。要等整整一個月才知道到底申請出來什麼個東西。
As a matter of fact I don’t know if I will successfully get a CRN for Nola with my online application. This is because the online application system told me that my claim won’t be process till end of December. I will have to wait for a whole month before knowing what the heck will the application get me.
我希望這篇貼文可以幫助像我一樣的老母們在申請新生兒的客戶參考號時，少些痛苦。I hope this post can help mums like me, living with less pain, when applying for a newborn’s CRN.
