Job Seeker Compliance Framework 001-10000000

The key objective of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework is ensuring RAES job seekers comply with their mutual obligation requirements. The Job Seeker Compliance Framework also has a number of safety nets built in to protect vulnerable RAES job seekers from incurring penalties for circumstances beyond their control.

The following key principles underpin the Job Seeker Compliance Framework:

• a focus on participation and maintaining RAES job seeker engagement with employment services
• developing work like behaviours, and
• ensuring penalties are only imposed for failures within a RAES job seekers control

All RAES job seekers receiving a participation payment are expected to comply with reasonable requirements.

The following are key features of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework:

• Circumstances impacting compliance
• Unemployment Non-Payment Periods (UNPP), including Hardship provisions during a UNPP
• Participation payment suspensions
• No Show, No Pay failures
• Non-Attendance Reports
• Connection failures
• Non-attendance failures
• Reconnection failures
• Serious failures:
• Refusing or failing to accept a suitable job offer
• Persistent non-compliance
• Comprehensive Compliance Assessments (CCA)
• Waiving a serious failure period, and
• Hardship provisions during serious failure periods

Both Services Australia and RAES providers have responsibility for monitoring RAES job seeker engagement with mutual obligation requirements.

RAES providers are responsible for actioning Non-Attendance Reports (NAR), including issuing reconnection notices, recording appropriate outcomes within the On-line Diary in a timely manner, and submitting Participation Reports or Provider Attendance Reports where they consider an investigation of a non-compliance event by Services Australia is required.

Services Australia is responsible for determining whether a connection, non-attendance, reconnection, No Show, No Pay or serious failure has occurred or an Unemployment Non-Payment Period (UNPP) will be applied.

The importance of complying with mutual obligation requirements and the consequences of not doing so should be reinforced with RAES job seekers at every participation related contact.

This includes reminding RAES job seekers:

• 'If you have compulsory mutual obligation requirements, you are required to meet these to remain eligible for payment'
• 'If you are unable to attend an appointment you must contact the organisation that you have the appointment with as soon as possible to advise why you are unable to attend'
• 'If you do not attend an appointment and you have not contacted beforehand, your payment may be reduced or stopped, even if you had a good reason for not being able to attend'
• 'If you fail to attend, or behave inappropriately at a job interview, your payment may be reduced or stopped'
• 'If you are found to have been persistently not meeting your requirements, or refused a suitable job, your payment may stop for up to 8 weeks'
• 'If you become voluntarily unemployed without a good reason or are dismissed from your job due to misconduct, you may not be paid for 8 weeks