Rejecting a compliance action 001-10040090

Record all job seeker compliance decisions in the Compliance Investigation workflow. This is located in the Participation Compliance Hub in Process Direct.

Rejection reasons presented in the Participation Compliance workflow are based on the:

• type of failure, and
• information recorded by PST-skilled staff, including the job seeker’s main excuse for the failure category and reason selected

The Compliance Investigation workflow supports PST-skilled staff during the investigation and the decision making process.

All PST-skilled staff must:

• confirm the outcome presented on the Decision and Penalty page is as expected, and
• review unexpected outcomes to ensure all information and selections have been recorded correctly

See the Resources page for a list of rejection reasons.

Providers who generate a compliance action are notified of the:

• rejection
• rejection reason, and
• any free text about why the decision was made

The explanation of why the rejection occurred is used by providers to understand the:

• relevant facts of the decision
• job seeker’s circumstances at the time of the non-compliance event, and
• ways they may improve job seeker servicing

For further information, see Sending free text to providers when compliance action finalised.

Note: job seekers can obtain any information recorded under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

When a decision is made to reject a compliance action, give the job seeker all of the following key messages:

• The reasons why the compliance action was rejected
• The circumstances considered during the investigation, including:
• any personal circumstances
• other relevant circumstances
• How the outcome of the decision will affect them
• They must continue to meet their mutual obligation requirements
• If they are unable to meet their mutual obligation requirements, they must contact their provider
• The impact on their payment if they fail to do so

A decision to reject a non-attendance or reconnection failure triggered by a Provider Appointment Report (PAR), will not restore a Non-Attendance Report (NAR) payment suspension (suspension reason: SUS-ANR).

The provider is responsible for re-engaging Community Development Program (CDP) participants following generation of a NAR. Once the CDP participant contacts their provider, payment is automatically restored when:

• the CDP participant attends the re-engagement appointment, or
• the provider records they are no longer required to re-engage

If a CDP participant's payment is suspended, PST-skilled staff can restore the payment if the suspension is due to:

• 'Did not attend compulsory participation appointment or activity' (APA), and
• the related failure is rejected, and
• no other valid suspension failures exist

Reject a provider request for a manual CCA when:

• the provider states the CDP participant requires an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or the provider notes indicate an ESAt is the more appropriate assessment
• it is clear the provider has selected CCA in error
• the provider notes indicate significant confusion regarding the purpose of a CCA, or
• the provider has not supplied sufficient information to undertake an assessment

Note: when a CDP participant has an outstanding ESAt, the provider will not be able to transmit a request for a manual CCA.

Reject an automatic CCA when:

• the CDP participant is serving an Unemployment Non-Payment Period (UNPP) or other serious failure period
• the participant’s payment is cancelled
• the CCA was generated within a period of conditional waiver, or
• advice has been provided that CCAs are not to be conducted due to a temporary suspension of mutual obligation requirements in the region where the participant is located, for example due to a declared disaster

Only investigate failures lodged after a CCA has commenced if the event date of the failure is later than the date the CCA is finalised.

Manual intervention by PST-skilled staff may be required when the system is unable to automatically finalise outstanding compliance action.

The workflow will (If possible):

• automatically identify the appropriate rejection reason, and
• autofill the Decision and Penalty page

The decision maker must ensure the most appropriate rejection reason has been selected, before finalising the compliance action.

For further information, see Outstanding participation compliance activities requiring manual follow-up action.

An unemployment failure or UNPP is not applied if a participation payment will not be payable.

When a new claim will be rejected, staff with the WNPPD or UNPP security resource must reject the compliance action by:

• recording the most appropriate excuse based on the circumstances, and
• selecting the most appropriate available rejection reason

Record a Display on Access DOC to advise that, had the claim not been rejected, the unemployment failure or UNPP would have been fully investigated. Include:

• the date of event of unemployment
• the date the Employment Separation Certificate (SU1) was scanned (if applicable), or
• if the failure was generated using information from single touch Payroll (STP)
• if unemployment ceased as a result of:
• voluntary unemployment, or
• misconduct as a worker, and
• any other relevant details

Add an expiry date 12 weeks from the date the job seeker ceased employment.

Potential non-payment period

• For an unemployment preclusion period resulting from an unemployment failure, the potential non-payment period is 4 weeks
• For a UNPP, the potential non-payment period is 8 weeks from the date the job seeker originally ceased employment
• If the customer re-claims a participation payment and the start date is within the potential unemployment preclusion period or UNPP:
• regenerate a compliance investigation for unemployment due to a voluntary act or misconduct, and
• determine before the new claim is finalised

Job seekers receiving a participation payment may have their payment suspended if they fail to meet their mutual obligation requirements. Suspension reasons include:

• Did not meet provider appointment (TCF) and Provider work refusal failure (TCW)
• Did not attend compulsory participation appointment or activity (APA) and Non-attendance report received (ANR)

For further information, see Cancellation, suspension and rejection reason codes for Newstart System (NSS).

When a participation payment is cancelled for any reason, participation suspensions are automatically finalised, payments restored, and related re-engagement requirements ended. The same automatic process applies when a participation payment is suspended due to:

• Departure overseas (DOT)
• Imprisonment (IMP)
• Customer in compensation preclusion period (COM)
• Income Maintenance Period (IMP) preclusion applied (PIM)
• Income maintenance period (IMN)

An outstanding compliance investigation is automatically finalised if the participation payment is cancelled due to:

• Customer has reached Age Pension age (AGE)
• Customer has reached Age Pension age (AGP)

An outstanding compliance investigation may also automatically finalise if the participation payment is cancelled or suspended due to:

• Departure overseas (DOT)
• Imprisonment (IMP), or
• Customer in compensation preclusion period (COM)

If payment is cancelled or suspended for other reasons:

• any outstanding compliance action will remain outstanding on the Participation Compliance Hub for up to 13 weeks
• hold these activities until the day the 91 Day Compliance Action review matures:
• The Future Activity List (FAL) screen displays the date the review matures
• If a compliance activity needs to be held, see Table 3 for the steps to place the activity on hold
• conduct a compliance investigation if payment is restored or re-granted within the above 13 week period

An outstanding compliance action is automatically finalised when:

• payment is suspended due to:
• Departure overseas (DOT)
• Imprisonment (IMP), or
• Customer in compensation preclusion period (COM)
• payment is cancelled due to:
• Customer failed to re-engage (CDR)
• Did not contact provider to re-engage (DCP)
• Did not meet provider requirement (TCF)
• Provider work refusal failure (TCW)
• Non-attendance report received (ANR)
• Did not attend participation appointment or activity (APA)
• Mutual obligation or work refusal penalty (TCP)
• Unemployment failure penalty (TCU)
• Death (DEA)
• Customer has reached Age Pension age (AGE)
• Customer has reached Age Pension age (AGP)

If payment is cancelled or suspended for other reasons:

• any outstanding compliance action will remain outstanding on the Participation Compliance Hub for up to 13 weeks
• hold these activities until the day the 91 Day Compliance Action review matures:
• The Future Activity List (FAL) screen displays the date the review matures
• If a compliance activity needs to be held, see Table 3 for the steps to place the activity on hold
• conduct a compliance investigation if payment is restored or re-granted within the above 13 week period

A Capability Assessment is automatically finalised when a participation payment is:

• cancelled for any reason other than Youth Allowance Age (YAL/CAN-AGD)
• suspended due to:
• Departure overseas (DOT)
• Imprisonment (IMP)
• Customer in compensation preclusion period (COM)
• Income Maintenance Period (IMP) preclusion applied (PIM), or
• Income maintenance period (IMN)

If payment is re-granted or restored the Employment Services System (ESS) will automatically check if a Capability Assessment is still required and will regenerate the Capability Assessment.

For further information, see Capability Assessments.

The system will automatically reject the CCA if payment is:

• suspended due to imprisonment (IMP), or
• cancelled for any reason while there is an outstanding CCA on the record

A new CCA will be generated the next time a triggering failure is applied, if the conditions still exist to generate the CCA.

If for any reason the CCA is not actioned within 91 days of being generated, the 91 day Compliance Action Review will mature and automatically reject the CCA.

For further information, see Completing a Comprehensive Compliance Assessment (CCA).

Open Workload Manager (WLM):

• Select 'Open in Process Direct'
• Go to the Future Activity List (FAL) screen and note the Action Date for the 91 Day Compliance Action review
• Go to Step 2

Update the Status to On Hold.

• Select Status
• Select Edit
• Update relevant fields:
• Status: On Hold
• On Hold Reason: Pending Customer Contact
• On Hold Expiry Date: enter the action date for the 91 Day Compliance Action review
• Select Save

Procedure ends here.