Compliance Activity Advice
V 4.0
Disclaimer
This document is not a stand-alone document and does not contain the entirety of Job Services Australia Providers' obligations. It should be read in conjunction with the Employment Services Deed 2012 - 2015 and any relevant guidelines or reference material issued by DEEWR under or in connection with Employment Services Deed 2012 - 2015.
Table of Contents
Background
Introduction
Department of Human Services Service Centre’s Role
Types of Compliance Activities
Updating the Compliance Activity appointment result in the Diary
Failure to attend a Compliance Activity appointment or enter into an Employment Pathway Plan
Failure to attend a Compliance Activity appointment (DNAI)
Failure to enter into an Employment Pathway Plan (DNEP)
Rescheduling the Compliance Activity Appointment
Updating the Employment Pathway Plan (EPP)
Duration of Compliance Activities
Failing to participate in a Compliance Activity
Participating in a Compliance Activity while in Work Experience Phase or Compulsory Activity Phase
Participating in a Compliance Activity while in an Intensive Activity
Job seekers who have been granted an Activity Test Exemption
Completing a Compliance Activity
Compliance ActivityAdvice
Document Change History
Version / Start Date / Effective Date / End Date / Change & Location4.0 / 1 July 13 / 1 July 13 / Accessibility requirements
3.0 / 22 Jun 12 / 01 July 12 / 1 July 13 / Narrative:Clearer explanations and update from Centrelink to Human Services throughout
2.0 / 01 July 11 / 01 July 11 / 01 July 12 / Narrative: Text changes (Various pages)
1.0 / 28 July 10 / 1 July 09 / 01 July 11 / Original version of the document
Background
The purpose of this document is to provide information regarding a job seeker’s participation requirements where they agree to undertake a Compliance Activity in order to waive a Serious Failure eight week non-payment penalty. This document should be read in conjunction with the Job Seeker Compliance Guidelines.
Introduction
Any job seeker who incurs an eight week non-payment penalty as a result of a Serious Failure for persistent non-compliance (as a result of a CCA) or for refusing to accept or commence a suitable job, can have their payment reinstated if they agree to undertake a Compliance Activity for eight weeks.
Generally a job seeker with full-time participation requirements undertaking a Compliance Activity must undertake intensive participation in activities for a total of 200 hours over eight (8) weeks at 25 hours per week.
Principal Carer Parents and job seekers with an assessed Partial Capacity to Work are generally required to participate for a total of 120 hours over eight weeks at 15 hours per week. Compliance Activities generally require some participation on each business day.
Department of Human Services Service Centre’s Role
Department of Human Services (hereon referred to as ‘Human Services’) are responsible for informing job seekers of the option to choose to undertake a Compliance Activity when an eight week non-payment penalty Serious Failure is applied. If a job seeker agrees to undertake a Compliance Activity, then Human Services will book an appointment with the job seeker’s Job Services Australia provider (hereon referred to as ‘provider’). Providers are notified of this appointment via the Noticeboard ‘Re-engagement’ message in the DEEWR IT Systems.
The Compliance Activity appointment will appear in a provider’s diary with a ‘C!’ and within the ‘Special Requirements’ field of this appointment Human Services will also include the details of the duration of the Compliance Activity.
When the job seeker agrees to undertake a Compliance Activity, their payment will be reinstated by Human Services and will be conditionally payable until an appointment result is recorded in the Online Diary for the Compliance Activity appointment. Human Services are not responsible for determining the type of Compliance Activity as this is the responsibility of the provider.
Human Services will inform the job seeker that if they fail to attend their Compliance Activity appointment or do not sign an Employment Pathway Plan which includes the Compliance Activity with their provider, their non-payment penalty will immediately be reinstated.
It is a contractual requirement for providers to have sufficient re-engagement sessions available over the next 2 business days. Provider should not wait for Human Services to contact them in order to make re-engagement sessions available. This will allow Human Services to refer the job seeker in a timely manner to undertake a Compliance Activity.
Types of Compliance Activities
Job seekers are able to undertake a range of activities to meet their Compliance Activity requirements such as:
- Study or training
- Work for the Dole
- Drought Force
- Green Corps
- Paid Employment
- Voluntary Work
- Intensive Job Search (note that any form of Job Search cannot be included as a compulsory activity in an Early School Leaver’s Employment Pathway Plan)
- Combination of these activities
Updating the Compliance Activity appointment result in the Diary
One of the most important steps in the Compliance Activity process is updating the Compliance Activity appointment result. Providers must update the Compliance Activity appointment result by no later than close of business (COB) on the day of the Compliance Activity appointment. If the appointment result is not updated by COB on the day of the appointment, Human Services will receive a notification that no result has been entered and will assume the job seeker has attended the Compliance Activity appointment and signed the EPP.
Failure to attend a Compliance Activity appointment or enter into an Employment Pathway Plan
Failure to attend a Compliance Activity appointment (DNAI)
Where a job seeker fails to attend a Compliance Activity appointment, providers are not required to attempt to contact the job seeker. Instead, providers should enter an appointment result of Did not attend – Invalid (DNAI) by or no later than COB that day. DNAI can also be entered even if the job seeker had a valid reason for non-attendance, if the job seeker did not give prior notice of their inability to attend. This will result in Human Services reinstating the job seeker’s non-payment penalty from the date of the missed appointment where they have no reasonable excuse for the non-attendance. A Participation Report (PR) or Contact Request (CR) is not required to be submitted.
Failure to enter into an Employment Pathway Plan (DNEP)
When a job seeker attends a Compliance Activity appointment but will not sign their amended EPP, providers should enter a result of Did not enter into an Employment Pathway Plan (DNEP) immediately or no later than COB that day (providers should not enter a result of ATT (Attended) as this result should only be entered if the job seeker attends the appointment andenters into an EPP on the day of the appointment). Entering DNEP will result in Human Services reinstating the job seeker’s non-payment penalty from the date of the appointment where the job seeker does not have a reasonable excuse for not entering into the revised EPP. A PR is not required to be submitted.
Providers should not submit a PR or CR if a job seeker fails to attend their Compliance Activity appointment or does not enter into an EPP. This is because once a provider enters either DNAI or DNEP result in the Compliance Activity appointment, it will act as an alert to Human Services that the job seeker has failed to attend the appointment or enter into the EPP. It will initiate the investigation of the non-compliance with Human Services. Where the provider does not enter a result in the Diary by COB the day of the appointment or activity, a PR cannot (should not) be submitted as an eight week non-payment penalty will only commence once Human Services have received a DNAI or DNEP result.
Rescheduling the Compliance Activity Appointment
Where the job seeker contacts their provider on the day of the Compliance Activity appointment to request a reschedule of the appointment, the provider can verbally reschedule the appointment to later on the same day without having to reschedule the appointment in the Online Diary (providers are unable to reschedule the appointment in the Online Diary as only Human Services can do this). The job seeker should be advised that failure to attend this rescheduled appointment will result in the re-commencement of the job seeker’s eight week non-payment penalty.
If the job seeker does not attend the rescheduled appointment made by the provider outside of the diary for an alternative time on the same day, the provider should update the original Compliance Activity appointment with DNAI by no later than COB that day. If the job seeker does attend the rescheduled appointment but does not enter into an Employment Pathway Plan then a result of DNEP should be entered into the original Compliance Activity appointment by no later than COB that day.
If it is not possible to arrange another appointment on the same day, the provider should advise the job seeker to contact Human Services. No appointment result should be entered for the original appointment in these circumstances. Human Services will reschedule the appointment for the job seeker and the job seeker’s payment will remain conditionally payable until the job seeker attends the rescheduled appointment.
Providers must keep accurate records of all notification, including how it was issued to a job seeker, confirmation, reminder and other contact attempts, including any rescheduling for which the job seeker has asked. It is best practice to record this information utilising either the appointment ‘Special Requirements’ field, and the ‘Appointment Result Comments’ field of the Diary appointment screens, or the job seeker comments section of the DEEWR IT Systems, depending on what the information is relevant to. This will ensure any additional information required for compliance action raised is readily available and accessible.
Updating the Employment Pathway Plan (EPP)
When a job seeker attends the Compliance Activity appointment, the provider must update the EPP on the day of the appointment to reflect the job seeker’s agreed participation in a Compliance Activity. The activity (or activities) must be entered into the ‘Compliance Activity’ section of the EPP.
Where a job seeker is already undertaking an activity that could meet the requirements for a Compliance Activity (e.g. training), they should continue in that activity. However the provider must update the EPP to reflect that the job seeker is undertaking this activity separately as a Compliance Activity. This should also be reflected in the Compliance Activity section of the EPP. If the activity is not 25 hours per week, providers will need to arrange additional activities so that the total weekly level of participation across the range of activities equates to 25 hours. These will also need to be recorded in the job seeker’s EPP as a Compliance Activity.
For job seekers with part time participation requirements (i.e. Principal Carer Parents or job seekers with a Partial Capacity to Work) – providers will need to arrange additional activities so that the total weekly level of participation equates to 15 hours participation per week.
If the job seeker failure to enter in an EPP, providers need to report this to Human Services (refer to advice above – Failure to attend a Compliance Activity appointment or enter into an Employment Pathway Plan).
Activity Management
Providers must also ensure that the agreed choice of Compliance Activity is created in the Activity Management component of the DEEWR IT Systems reflecting the job seeker’s expected start date. This will ensure providers are ‘alerted’ by the Noticeboard to confirm the job seeker actually commenced their chosen Compliance Activity as initially agreed.
Once providers have confirmed that a job seeker had commenced in their Compliance Activity it is crucial for providers to update the activity placement with the actual start date and placement status of ‘Placement confirmed’ into the Activity Placement Details screen. This is to ensure that, where appropriate, the job seeker will receive their supplement payment (e.g. where they are participating in Work for the Dole, Green Corps, Drought Force etc.) from Human Services. All activities undertaken for Compliance Activity purposes must reflect the reason ‘Compliance –in lieu of 8 wk NPP’ in the ‘Placement Type’ field.
Duration of Compliance Activities
The standard Compliance Activity duration is eight weeks; however there will be some job seekers who will need to undertake a Compliance Activity for less than eight weeks. This occurs where a job seeker may agree to undertake a Compliance Activity part-way through their eight week non-payment penalty.
The job seeker must then participate in a Compliance Activity for the remainder of what is the balance of their eight week non-payment penalty (e.g. if a job seeker has served two weeks of a non-payment penalty and then agrees to undertake a Compliance Activity, the job seeker will need to undertake a Compliance Activity for six weeks for 150 hours (e.g. 6 weeks times 25 hours per week if they have full time participation requirements)). This needs to be recorded under the ‘Compliance Activity’ section of the EPP. Human Services will include the required duration of the Compliance Activity in the ‘Special Requirements’ field within the job seeker’s Compliance Activity appointment.
Failing to participate in a Compliance Activity
Where are job seeker fails to commence, attend or to satisfactorily participate in a Compliance Activity without a reasonable excuse, and the provider is unable to arrange for the job seeker to make up for any of the lost days at another time, the provider should submit a No Show, No Pay failure to Human Services in relation to each day missed. If the job seeker has the No Show, No Pay failure applied this will result in the loss of a day’s pay for each day the job seeker fails to attend or participate in the activity. If the provider is able to negotiate with the job seeker to make up the missed time this course of action should be recorded in the Allowable Absences Record within the Compliance screen in the DEEWR IT Systems.
Participating in a Compliance Activity while in Work Experience Phase or Compulsory Activity Phase
The hours a job seeker spends undertaking a Compliance Activity while in the Work Experience Phase do not count towards their Work Experience Activity Requirement i.e. a job seeker who is required to participate in 390 hours of Work for the Dole as a means of meeting their Work Experience Activity Requirement must also complete the full 200 hours of a Compliance Activity, in addition to the 390 hours for their Work Experience Activity Requirement.
A job seeker in the Compulsory Activity Phase must also complete the full 200 hours of a Compliance Activity over an 8 week period. However, the hours they undertake can be counted towards their minimum monthly Work Experience Activity Requirement i.e. a job seeker who must participate in Work for the Dole for a minimum of 65 hours per month as a means of meeting their Work Experience Activity Requirement can count the hours spent undertaking their Compliance Activity (up to 65 hours) towards meeting their Work Experience Activity Requirement.
Providers have the flexibility to extend the period over which the job seeker has to complete their Work Experience Activity requirement within the Work Experience Phase to allow for the time taken to complete the Compliance Activity.
Participating in a Compliance Activity while in an Intensive Activity
Stream 1 job seekers who are participating in an Intensive Activity at the time they agree to undertake a Compliance Activity should complete the Intensive Activity requirement. The hours participating in the Intensive Activity can be counted towards meeting the Compliance Activity requirement. Once the job seeker has completed the Intensive Activity they would then be required to participate in the Compliance Activity to complete the remaining hours of their Compliance Activity requirement.
Job seekers who have been granted an Activity Test Exemption
Where a job seeker who is participating in a Compliance Activity is granted an Activity Test exemption from their participation requirements, the period of the Activity Test exemption will count towards the job seeker’s Compliance Activity requirement e.g. if a job seeker has commenced in a Compliance Activity and after one week is granted a two week Activity Test exemption, the job seeker will only be required to participate in a Compliance Activity for a further five weeks, once the exemption period ends.
Completing a Compliance Activity
A Noticeboard message ‘alerts’ providers to when a job seeker is due to cease their Compliance Activity within 7 days as long as the provider has used an activity placement within the DEEWR IT Systems.
This is a management tool to assist providers in ensuring that job seekers have completed their required hours. When a job seeker completes their Compliance Activity it is best practice to update the Activity Placement to reflect their completion, in the event that the job seeker is receiving supplement payments due to the type of Activity they were undertaking (e.g. Work for the Dole or Green Corps).