Reviewing and validating Community Development Program (CDP) Provider Reports 001-10040010

PRs and PARs are used by Community Development Program (CDP) providers when a participant has failed to meet their mutual obligation requirements. PRs and PARs trigger a compliance investigation to be conducted by Services Australia.

A CDP provider may submit a PR or PAR to trigger a compliance investigation due to:

• non-attendance at a provider appointment
• non-attendance at a job interview arranged by their provider
• inappropriate behaviour at a job interview
• refusal or failure to start suitable work
• leaving a job voluntarily or dismissal due to misconduct
• non-attendance at a compulsory third party appointment arranged by their provider, or
• refusal to enter a Job Plan

PR and PAR details

PRs and PARs submitted to Services Australia for investigation should include the following information:

• details of the compliance action that requires investigation
• details of the formal notification provided to the CDP participant about their requirement to:
• attend an appointment with the provider
• attend an appointment with a third party arranged by the provider
• attend a job interview
• any other relevant information which may assist Services Australia investigate the compliance action

Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled Service Officers must be reasonably satisfied a failure is legislatively 'valid' (that is, has actually occurred) before it can be applied.

The most common reason Services Australia might consider a failure invalid include:

• the CDP participant was not given reasonable notice of the appointment or requirement. See Assessing reasonable notice
• the CDP participant actually did attend/was not required to attend on the incident date
• the CDP participant did meet their job search requirements
• the job the CDP participant was referred to work that was unsuitable (according to legislated definitions)
• misconduct did not occur

While the PST-skilled Service Officer needs to be satisfied the reported failure is valid, this does not mean the Service Officer needs to confirm this in every case. For example, if the CDP participant is not disputing they understood where and when they were required to attend, or that they were given adequate advance notice, generally it can be accepted they have been notified correctly.

Measures are in place within Services Australia and the Employment Services System (ESS) to help ensure a failure is not generated if it is not valid.

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations validation

To help ensure the failure is valid and that PRs and PARs have the information required by Services Australia, ESS includes prompts and requires certain information to be recorded by the provider before the PR or PAR can be submitted.

Systems checks automatically applied before a failure can be generated include:

• whether the CDP participant was active on their caseload on the incident date
• if the incident date(s) match activity start and end dates in a CDP participant's Job Plan
• does the CDP participant have a job search code in their Job Plan

Mandatory fields a provider must also complete before a failure is generated include:

• incident date
• details of the failure, including:
• time and location of the failure as appropriate
• notification method
  Note: all details of notification are not required in the Job Plan. Providers often include the overall requirement in the Job Plan with start and end dates but issue the further details of the requirement verbally, via e-mail, letter or through the Activity Diary
• correct notification is attached as evidence to the PR
• did the CDP participant give prior notice of their inability to attend, if appropriate
• has the provider discussed the matter with the CDP participant

If a compliance action has already been lodged for that date, ensure the CDP participant had more than one requirement on the day before lodging another report.

If the report is created, ESS will also check and provide further prompts to a provider including

• if the CDP participant:
• is on a nil rate
• declared earnings up to 28 days from the incident date
• had a current employment placement in the fortnight prior to the requirement
• has any vulnerability
• has a participation requirement and is receiving a participation payment on the incident date
• has an early school leaver or principal carer requirement on the incident date
• ensuring a No Show, No Pay PR was not due to distance issues if a PR has been rejected for this reason in the past 9 months

Services Australia validation

All reports a provider submits to Services Australia also go through an automatic system validation process before a failure investigation is generated.

The validation that occurs ensures the CDP participant:

• was in receipt of a participation payment on the event date (other than for Unemployment Non-Payment Period (UNPP) failures)
• has not/is not expected to commence full-time study or an apprenticeship within the next 3 days (applies to Youth Allowance (YA) CDP participants only)
• does not have an outstanding Comprehensive Compliance Assessment (CCA)
• was not serving a serious failure period or UNPP on the incident date

This validation is important as it confirms (as far as possible) that before a failure is generated for investigation, the failure is valid. Unless the CDP participant or the investigation indicates otherwise, the investigation would generally commence with an assumption that the failure is valid.

Once a failure has been generated in the Services Australia system, it requires investigation. This can include a number of different elements dependent on the type of failure generated and the discussion with the CDP participant.

Identification and investigation of the facts generally commence with a review of the PR or PAR and, the participant's record, and by asking the participant to explain why they have not met the requirement (as reported). See Roles and responsibilities for managing compliance with compulsory requirements.

When the Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled Service Officer identifies that the failure incident date recorded by the provider does not reflect the incident described in the report, it should be returned to the provider with the relevant free text allowing them to update if appropriate.

System restrictions do not allow for a No Show, No Pay investigation to be generated or a failure applied if the incident date is a weekend. To manage this, providers will send Services Australia a PR with an incident date equal to the Monday following the date the incident actually occurred. See Non-attendance or inappropriate conduct in a job interview. The Resources page contains examples of when it would be appropriate for Services Australia to amend a failure reason or incident date.

PRs for non-attendance at a provider appointment, when a Non-Attendance Report (NAR) or PAR is the appropriate compliance action, are invalid and should be rejected.

Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled Service Officers investigating an Unemployment Non-Payment Period (UNPP) failure are required to consider:

• the suitability of the work for the CDP participant and
• the reasons for leaving employment

For more information, see Suitable/unsuitable work.

PST-skilled Service Officers investigating a failure for refusing, failing to accept or failing to commence suitable work are required to consider:

• the suitability of the work for the CDP participant and
• the reasons for not accepting or commencing work

See Refusing or failing to accept a suitable job offer.

Depending on the failure type, Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled Service Officers may be required to consider the terms outlined in the CDP participant's Job Plan.

A failure related to a Job Plan term can be applied only where:

• the requirement is compulsory
• the requirement was reasonable and suitable (in line with relevant policies), and
• the CDP participant received proper notification of the requirement

Proper notification includes:

• clear information about the times and dates of the requirement
• details of the location of the requirement
• clear instructions about what the CDP participant must do if they are unable to attend, for example, who to notify and when
• reasonable notice prior to the start of the requirement

If a requirement is included in a CDP participant's Job Plan as compulsory, the provider may specify some of these details separately. For example, date, days and time of attendance can be provided separately. The provider will generally use the Activity Diary to advise the participant of these additional details.

PST-skilled Service Officers are required to ensure there are no conflicting compulsory requirements contained in the Job Plan. For example, a scheduled provider appointment has not been booked for the same time as an appointment arranged by the provider with a third party.

It is expected that when investigating any Job Plan related failure or if a CDP participant is disputing being adequately notified of their requirements, staff will review the terms to ensure they are appropriate and not conflicting or otherwise unreasonable.

When a CDP participant is refusing to sign a Job Plan or has indicated they are struggling to fully meet the requirements in their Job Plan, a more thorough review of the content of the Job Plan is required. This ensures requirements are reasonable, do not exceed the CDP participant's assessed capacity, do not conflict with each other, and take into consideration other aspects of their circumstances, e.g. principal carer status.

Note: a CDP participant's circumstances can change. A requirement that was reasonable at the time a CDP participant entered into the Job Plan may no longer be reasonable at the time they failed to comply.

There may be circumstances when the PR or PAR does not contain all information the Service Officer needs to make the decision, or when the information provided by the participant conflicts with the provider's statement in the report. In this case, the Service Officer should attempt to contact the provider by phone for clarification.

When contact is unsuccessful, the report can be returned to the provider for further information. The provider has 5 working days from the date the report was returned to provide either the correct incident date or the additional detail and resubmit it to Services Australia for investigation.

When returning a report to the provider for further information, appropriate free text comments clearly explaining the reason and the additional information needed must be included.