Refusing to enter into a Job Plan 001-10070030

To be eligible to receive a participation payment, job seekers are required to enter into a Job Plan. Once in receipt of a payment, job seekers may also need to renegotiate a Job Plan to retain their eligibility to their participation payment.

This Job Plan records what a job seeker must do to meet their mutual obligation requirements. Employment Services Providers are generally responsible for negotiating Job Plans. When a provider sets the requirements included within the plan, they must ensure the:

• job seeker's personal circumstances and assessed capacity have been considered, and
• requirements are reasonable, and
• job seeker is capable of meeting these requirements, and
• requirements are consistent with relevant legislation and policies and do not exceed prescribed maximum limits set out in social security law

Job seekers are allowed 'think time' (2 business days) to consider the terms included in the Job Plan before agreeing to it. However, think time does not apply where there is no intention to enter into a Job Plan (such as, where the person is refusing to enter into a Job Plan without any justification).

Job seekers in Workforce Australia Online can discuss their Job Plan with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' (DEWR) Digital Services Contact Centre, if they have any concerns, before agreeing to enter into their plan.

Where the job seeker refuses to enter into or renegotiate a Job Plan, including where they have unreasonably delayed entering into a Job Plan without justification, providers may initiate compliance action. The appropriate job seeker compliance system will be used to re-engage the job seeker.

If a job seeker repeatedly refuses to enter into or renegotiate a Job Plan without a reasonable excuse, cancellation of payments can be considered.

Under the Targeted Compliance Framework, when a provider managed job seeker refuses to enter or renegotiate a Job Plan, a mutual obligation failure has been committed.

When a provider reports the mutual obligation failure to Services Australia, and the job seeker is in the green or warning zone, the job seeker will receive a notice:

• to contact their provider to discuss why they have not agreed to their Job Plan, and
• that failing to contact within 5 business days may result in suspension of payments

The Services Australia system restores the job seeker's payment when the provider confirms the job seeker has met the re-engagement requirement.

Job seekers who do not provide a valid reason for refusing to enter/renegotiate a Job Plan will accrue one demerit.

When a provider reports the mutual obligation failure to Services Australia, and the job seeker is in the penalty zone the job seeker may incur a penalty unless they:

• provide a valid reason to their provider for not entering into the Job Plan, or
• provide a reasonable excuse during a compliance investigation with the Participation Solutions Team (PST) for not entering into the Job Plan

Upon receipt of the Provider Report submitted by the Community Development Program (CDP) provider:

• a connection failure for 'Failure to enter into a Job Plan' will be generated, and
• the CDP participant will be sent a notification advising them to contact the Participation Solutions Team (PST) as soon as possible to discuss the non-compliance event

PST-skilled staff will investigate the compliance action and where the CDP participant does not have a reasonable excuse for failing to enter into a Job Plan, a connection failure will be applied. For more information, see Investigating a connection failure.