Deferring an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) referral 001-02330020

In all instances, Services Australia must consider whether a job seeker with an exemption would benefit from an immediate referral for an ESAt before deferring the referral.

Where there is a valid reason to defer an ESAt referral for a job seeker with mutual obligation requirements, the deferral must be recorded on the system to reflect the customer's circumstances.

If there is a current and valid assessment of the customer's work capacity then this should be re-applied to a Job Seeker Snapshot-initiated ESAt flag to complete a pending Job Seeker Snapshot.

An ESAt referral can only be deferred where the:

• Job Seeker Snapshot has been run, the Job Seeker Snapshot status is pending and the system has flagged that an ESAt is required
• ESAt flag and pending Job Seeker Snapshot cannot be finalised by reapplying the outcomes of a current and valid assessment

The ESAt referral may be deferred for job seekers:

• who are receiving a payment with mutual obligation requirements, where there is a valid reason for deferment and the job seeker has a current exemption from mutual obligation requirements
• who are newly-arrived refugees. The referral should generally be deferred up to 12 weeks after the customer's arrival in Australia, but a referral may be made sooner if the customer indicates that they want to look for work before the end date of their exemption from mutual obligation requirements
• whose claim for payment has been granted, but the payment start date is in the future because of a waiting/preclusion period such as an Income Maintenance Period or Liquid Assets Waiting Period
• whose payment is suspended, for example because they are imprisoned or overseas and payment is not portable (generally the suspension period is for a maximum of 13 weeks, after which payment is cancelled)
• subject to a non-payment period, unemployment preclusion period or where the job seeker has entered into a post cancellation non-payment period
• without mutual obligation requirements, where deferment of the referral is appropriate
• who are waiting for the outcome of the Disability Support Pension (DSP)

The customer's circumstances will normally be reflected in the type of exemption granted - for example, Major Personal Crisis or Caring responsibilities. The fact that an exemption from mutual obligation requirements is granted does not automatically mean that the ESAt referral should be deferred.

In all cases the period of deferment is limited to a maximum of 13 weeks from the date that the Job Seeker Snapshot identified the need for an ESAt. A deferment should not exceed the end date of the current exemption from mutual obligation requirements.

Where a request for an ESAt was initiated by Services Australia and requirements are met to defer the referral, Service Officer(s) must record the decision to defer the ESAt request on the customer's record. Once the deferment is recorded, the activity on the customer's record indicating the requirement for an ESAt will be automatically finalised, although the Job Seeker Snapshot status will remain pending.

During the period of the deferment there is no requirement to request an ESAt.

A customer can volunteer to be referred for an ESAt during the deferment period.

If an ESAt request has not been started when the deferment period expires, the system will automatically create an activity to prompt Service Officers to request an ESAt as soon as possible. If the customer is not receiving an activity-tested payment when the deferment period ends, the request should only proceed if the customer chooses to do this.

Agency staff access the Deferred Referral link in Process Direct on Participation Summary.