Applying mutual obligation requirements during an Income Maintenance Period (IMP) 001-09020070

The IMP:

• encourages self-provision and eliminates differences in the treatment of leave and redundancy payments
• takes into account all leave and redundancy payments paid to the customer and accumulated:
  • over a period of employment, or
  • as a condition of service

This includes maternity leave, long service leave, sick leave, rostered days off, public holidays, annual leave, leave loading and redundancy payments

Customers serving an IMP are not required to satisfy their mutual obligation requirements during this period.

Job seekers will be manually exempt from RapidConnect but can still be referred to an employment services provider. The customer can choose to engage with the provider on a voluntary basis during the IMP, with no compliance being applied. The provider will determine their mutual obligation requirements and negotiate a Job Plan.

• If the IMP is 2 weeks or less and the job seeker is Centrelink managed, the job seeker must negotiate a Job Plan
• If the IMP is more than 2 weeks and the job seeker would be on a nil rate of pay due to the IMP, and the job seeker is Centrelink managed, Service Officers can opt to negotiate a Job Plan now or after the IMP

Note: the system will create a job seeker management activity and an action item in Process Direct when the job seeker becomes subject to mutual obligation requirements. This will alert Service Officers that follow up action is required for the job seeker.