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.
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails