Young mothers, wanting to set up their family benefit payments, are increasingly doing that over the internet.

Indeed,  the government says, around 80 per cent of first time mothers now lodge their claims online instead of using paper forms.

”More and more people are telling Centrelink they prefer to use the Internet to do their business,” the Federal Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen, says.

His comments illustrate a revolution, now under way, in the methods used to pay benefits of all kinds.

Age pensions, Austudy payments, youth allowances and even disaster relief payments can all  be accessed over the internet now.

Old style visits to local social security offices are rapidly becoming a relic of  past practices.

And that’s understandable.  A brief visit, to a computer in your back room, is much more convenient.

So how do you find out just what your entitlements might be?

A visit to  www.centrelink.gov.au or www.familyassist.gov.au. will probably help.

If you still need to be certain, though, after that, a telephone call to your local Centrelink office will usually confirm your calculations.

In short,  this task has never been easier.

And Mr Bowen is proud of that.

“More families are choosing to claim family payments over the Internet, with around half of all family assistance claims now being made using convenient and improved online services.” he says.

Mr Bowen said Centrelink has worked hard  to improve these services.

The information that clients provide through an online claims is sent straight into Cenrtrelink’s records.

And that which still comes on  paper forms is also scanned into its computer system.

Mr Bowen said the service also allows busy parents to save the information they have completed and finish the claim  later.

.“The 6,000 families claiming Family Tax Benefit online and 3,400 families lodging a paper form every week are benefiting from these changes by receiving their payments more quickly, with more than 80 per cent of claims processed within 14 days,” Mr Bowen adds.

People can claim a number of family payments online including Family Tax Benefit, Baby Bonus, Child Care Benefit and Maternity Immunisation Allowance, Mr Bowen said.

And 3.9 million customers are already registered to use self-service options.

And more than 24 million online transactions were completed last  financial year.

Others wishing to register need only to go to www.centrelink.gov.au or www.familyassist.gov.au.