Re-engaging job seekers - Targeted Compliance Framework 001-18030205

When a mutual obligation failure is committed the resulting action is dependent on the Targeted Compliance Framework zone the job seeker is in.

Job seekers in the green zone or warning zone will receive a notice from the Employment Services System (ESS) when they miss a requirement. The notice tells the job seeker:

• it appears they did not meet a requirement, and
• they must contact their provider or their payment will be put on hold

To avoid payment suspension the job seeker must, within 5 business days:

• contact their provider to explain the reason for non-compliance, and
• meet any re-engagement requirement issued by the provider

If they fail to contact and/or re-engage with their provider, their payment will be suspended after 5 business days.

The decision to suspend is made by either the ESS or the job seeker's provider. A trigger is sent to Services Australia electronically to trigger the suspension.

Job seekers in the financial penalty zone will have their payment suspended immediately when they miss a requirement. The decision to suspend is made either by the ESS or the provider. An automatic trigger is sent to Services Australia.

Types of participation suspensions:

• TCW - Provider work refusal failure
• TCF - Did not meet provider requirement

Where a participation suspension has been applied, compliance action will appear in the job seeker's Compliance summary under Completed/provider to action with the status of the compliance action as Yet to meet requirement.

The payment suspension period is worked out as follows.

• Start date of the suspension is:
• generally the start of the instalment period in which the mutual obligation failure occurred, or
• the start of the next instalment period where the transaction to suspend payment is received after the job seeker reports
• Payment is restored when:
• the job seeker complies with the re-engagement requirement issued by the provider, or
• the provider determines that the job seeker is no longer required to re-engage, for example the job seeker has been granted an exemption

When payment is suspended as a result of a work refusal failure, the suspension begins at the start of the:

• instalment period in which the work refusal failure occurred, or
• next instalment period when the suspension trigger is received after the job seeker reports

Payment is restored when:

• the job seeker contacts the provider to discuss the reasons they refused work, or
• before then, when:
• the job seeker is granted an exemption which includes the incident date of the work refusal failure, or
• the provider determines the job seeker had a valid reason for refusing work or the job seeker is no longer required to re-engage for another reason

The provider has full responsibility for setting and notifying job seekers of their re-engagement requirement following a mutual obligation failure.

Re-engagement requirements must be formally notified to the job seeker. The provider uses a verbal script to do that. The job seeker will receive a message telling them to contact the provider about the missed requirement when the job seeker's payment is suspended and they attempt to report prior to contacting their provider.

Re-engagement requirements issued by the provider, depend on the nature of the job seeker's missed requirement:

• The re-engagement requirement will be to attend a provider appointment for:
• non-attendance or misconduct at an employment services provider appointment, third party appointment, job interview, or
• failure to take satisfactorily action on a job referral
• The job seeker will generally be required to participate in the activity when there has been a non-attendance or misconduct at an activity, such as:
• Workforce Australia - Work for the Dole
• approved training or study, etc.
• Job seekers would need to:
• agree to a Job Plan if they have failed to agree to one
• satisfactorily complete job search where they have failed to do so
• For job seekers in Workforce Australia, including those in Workforce Australia Online, the re-engagement requirement for failing to meet the monthly points target is generally to make up the outstanding points in the next points period. They will not start accruing points towards the next monthly points target until they have met the re-engagement requirement

The application of a demerit can trigger a Capability Interview or a Capability Assessment. When this happens, the re-engagement requirement will be to:

• attend a Capability Interview, or
• contact Services Australia to arrange a Capability Assessment

Where the ESS triggers a Capability Assessment:

• the provider verbally notifies the job seeker of the re-engagement requirement
• asks them to contact Services Australia to have a Capability Assessment

Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled staff conduct Capability Assessments. The job seeker must be transferred to the Participation Solutions Team (PST).

The job seeker has met their re-engagement requirement when they contact PST, even if the Capability Assessment is unable to be completed at the time of contact. However, the job seeker will be unable to report on their next EPED until the Capability Assessment is completed.

For further information, see Capability Assessments.

If the Provider Report (which triggers payment suspension) does not have a Compliance status of 'FNP - Finalised provider report' on the Participation Compliance Hub advise the job seeker to contact:

• their provider, or
• the Digital Services Contact Centre for job seekers linked to Workforce Australia Online

After talking to their provider or the Digital Services Contact Centre (for job seekers linked to Workforce Australia Online), if a job seeker is still not satisfied they can contact the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' (DEWR) National Customer Service Line.

Note: ESS sends triggers to the customer's Services Australia record. The trigger to restore payment can be delayed when either a staff member has a lock on the record, or the job seeker is using their online account.

Manual action by PST-skilled staff may be needed when all suspension reports have a status of 'finalised provider report' in the Participation Compliance workflow, but the payment has not restored.

Refer the job seeker to the Participation Solutions Team (PST) if they have contacted a smart centre or service centre.

PST-skilled staff must check for a manual follow up (MFU) activity. Check the suspension can be restored when there is no MFU.

The payment can be restored when the provider finalises all suspension reports by recording one of the following outcomes:

• Re-engagement met (REM)
• Re-engagement not required/no longer required (RNR)
• Cannot re-engage in 2 days (R2D)
• Created in error (CIE)
• Finalised by Provider (FBP)

Go into the Participation Compliance Hub to check if the Provider Report has been finalised as per the above. The payment can be manually restored via the Benefit Action (BA) screen in Process Direct, if this has not already occurred. When restoring, complete the Restore (Payment Type) DOV Fast Note and record any relevant information.

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

PST-skilled staff may reassess the CDR cancellation decision if there is evidence that:

• the job seeker contacted their provider or the Digital Services Contact Centre (for job seekers linked to Workforce Australia Online) and/or attended a re-engagement appointment however the provider/DSCC coding is incorrect or incomplete, resulting in an incorrect CDR cancellation
• the incorrect appointment type was booked, for example:
• a contact appointment was booked instead of a re-engagement appointment
• attendance at the re-engagement appointment occurred, but a system error resulted in incorrect cancellation
• contact with the provider/DSCC has confirmed the re-engagement has been met/no longer required
• the job seeker was unable to meet their mutual obligation requirements on the incident date, or their circumstances have changed since the incident and they are no longer required to re-engage. For example:
• Their provider/DSCC no longer requires the job seeker to re-engage, or an exemption is or would have been granted during the TCF suspension period

Note: where evidence exists that an exemption would have applied, ensure the exemption is completed post restoration of payment.

Where evidence exists the cancellation is incorrect and the job seeker's payment can be restored, see Item 8.

For examples of common CDR cancellation scenarios, see the Resources page.

Where assistance or clarification is required to assess the ability to restore the payment, staff must consult with the PST SO5 to confirm if:

• restoration of payment is appropriate, or
• escalation to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk is required

Where insufficient evidence exists to indicate the job seeker has met, or was no longer required to meet their re-engagement requirement, advise the job seeker:

• of their review and appeal rights, and
• they will need to reclaim

Procedure ends here.

If the job seeker has not re-claimed payment after the cancellation, see Item 12.

If the job seeker has re-claimed payment after the cancellation, review the record:

• job seeker has re-claimed and claim has not been finalised, see Item 9
• job seeker has re-claimed and claim is granted but job seeker has not been paid, see Item 10
• job seeker has re-claimed and claim is granted and job seeker has been paid, see Item 11

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated if:

• it is established the cancellation is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been submitted and not yet assessed

Where payment is to be restored as the cancellation 'Customer failed to re-engage' (CDR) was incorrect and the job seeker's claim has not been determined, encourage the job seeker to withdraw their claim online:

• tell the job seeker:
• by withdrawing their claim their payment can be restored immediately
• they cannot apply for a formal review if they withdraw their claim as the claim is taken as never to have been made
• if the job seeker prefers, code the claim withdrawal for them
• if the job seeker refuses to withdraw their claim:
• reject the claim 'Customer receiving precluding payment (CPP)', then
• in a separate transaction, restore the JobSeeker Payment from the date paid to plus 1, and
• process any outstanding reports to generate payment of arrears, where appropriate
• record details of the decision and the conversation with the job seeker in a DOC

For further information regarding withdrawing a claim see, Withdrawal of claims.

See Item 12.

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated where:

• it has been established the CAN CDR is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been finalised and the job seeker has not yet been paid

Where this occurs, the newly granted jobseeker claim will need to be rejected:

• In Process Direct (preferred option), go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Benefit Type Code field - select or code the type of benefit
• Benefit Action field - select or key 'CAN'
• Reason field - select or key 'OTH'
• Date of Effect field - select or key the date equal to the 'grant date of most recent payment'
• Notes field - code 'CDR WORKAROUND'
• Complete the Source and DOR fields
• Finalise the activity - ensure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen

Note: as the job seeker has not yet been paid, the benefit status will change from CAN to REJ automatically upon finalisation.

To restore payment after the new claim (NCL) has been rejected, see Item 12.

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated where:

• it has been established the CAN CDR is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been finalised and the job seeker has been paid

Where this occurs, the newly granted jobseeker claim will need to be rejected:

• In Process Direct (preferred option), go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Benefit Type field - select or key the type of benefit
• Benefit Action field - select or key 'CAN'
• Reason field - select or key 'OTH'
• Date of Effect field - select or key the date equal to the 'grant date of most recent payment'
• Notes field - code 'CDR WORKAROUND'
• Complete the Source and DOR fields
• Finalise the activity - ensure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen

A debt shell will be created for this period however, when the CDR is overridden, this should offset and the benefit status will read as 'REJ' automatically.

To restore payment after the new claim (NCL) has been rejected, see Item 12.

Where it has been established the cancellation 'Customer failed to re-engage' (CDR) is incorrect and restoration is required:

• To cancel other (OTH) in Process Direct, go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen to override the CAN/CDR and SUS/TCF:
• Benefit Type field - select or key the type of benefit
• Benefit Action field - select or key 'CAN'
• Reason field - select or key 'OTH'
• Date of Effect field - select or key the date equal to the date of SUS/TCF
• Notes field - code 'CDR WORKAROUND'
• Complete the Source and DOR fields
• Finalise the activity - ensure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen
• To restore payment, in Process Direct go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen to restore from cancel other (OTH):
• Benefit Type field - select or key the type of benefit
• Benefit Action field - select or key 'RES'
• Reason field - leave blank, a note is not required
• Date of Effect field - select or key the same date used in the above 'cancel other (OTH)' part of this item
• Notes field - leave blank, a note is not required
• Complete the Source and DOR fields
• Finalise the activity - Do not inhibit the letters. This will notify the customer their job seeker payment has been restored.

Note: if a limiting date error is returned when attempting to restore payment, escalate via ROXY and hold the started activity. See Using Digital Assistant Roxy in Process Direct.

When restoring, make sure the Restore (Payment Type) DOV Fast Note is completed and record any relevant information.

Other considerations

• Customers cannot report using self-service when it is more than 27 days after their oldest outstanding reporting date. A staff member may be required to complete the outstanding reports for the customer. See Reporting employment income online for more information
• The payment is restored from the date of effect. A letter is generated, advising the customer of the restoration. If a Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity is created, see Creating an Online Advice (OLA), including within an existing activity
• As the payment has been cancelled, the job seeker registration may no longer be active. For information on re-registration with Workforce Australia, see Selection or allocation of a Workforce Australia Employment Services Provider

Procedure ends here.