Negotiating Job Plans for refugee appointments at 12 weeks, and conducting circumstance reviews at 12 months 005-18101149

Newly arrived refugees who are in receipt of an income support payment with mutual obligation requirements (for example, JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Youth Allowance (job seeker), Parenting Payment Single (PPS) (with mutual obligation requirements)) receive the 'Refugee in first 13 Weeks' (REF) mutual obligation requirement exemption for the first 13 weeks from their arrival in Australia. The exemption is an automatic exemption recorded on the Activity and Exemptions Summary (AEX) screen for eligible refugees.

The exemption period is manually adjusted to 11 weeks and 6 days at the new claim. See Refugee entrant service offer for more information on changing the exemption date.

During the exemption period, the newly arrived refugees are not required to look for work, but must attend the following scheduled appointments:

• Multicultural Service Officer (MSO) seminar, and
• Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) if required, and
• 12-week post exemption review

Refugees who are eligible for the BTSR measure can remain Centrelink managed until they have been in Australia for 12 months. This is unless a more suitable employment service is deemed appropriate at the 12-week appointment.

If they stay Centrelink managed their Job Plan will be negotiated by Services Australia and include refugee activities until they have been in Australia for 12 months.

A Service Officer in the refugee's local service centre is responsible for creating a Job Plan for them at their 12-post exemption review contact.

Note: as per normal processing, a Job Plan cannot be negotiated for a customer that has a current exemption from their mutual obligation requirements.

The Participation Summary screen will advise if the refugee is eligible for the BTSR measure. See Refugee entrant service offer for more information.

After the REF exemption and 12 weekly reporting has expired, newly arrived permanent refugee customers are subject to:

• mutual obligation requirements
• fortnightly reporting

The 12-week refugee post exemption review appointment is booked at 11 weeks and 6 days from arrival to align with their REF exemption and 12 weekly reporting end/due date.

Newly arrived permanent refugee customers must attend a 12-week refugee post exemption review appointment to create their Centrelink Managed Job Plan or have an appropriate referral completed. Job seekers with mutual obligation requirements are required to agree to a Job Plan and satisfy the requirements of their Job Plan. Failure to enter into a Job Plan within 28 days may result in suspension of payment.

Under the Better Targeting of Support for Refugees (BTSR) measure, most newly arrived permanent refugee customers are eligible to remain Centrelink managed for up to 12 months from their date of arrival in Australia, depending on their circumstances.

Refugee customers are not eligible for the BTSR measure or to be Centrelink managed, if they are eligible for referral to:

• Disability Employment Services (DES)
• Transition to Work (TtW)
• Community Development Program (CDP)

If they are eligible to remain Centrelink managed under the BTSR measure, at the 12-week refugee post exemption review appointment, the Service Officer will:

• add Refugee Activities (RAC) on the Activity and Exemptions Summary (AEX) screen
• negotiate a Job Plan with approved 'Refugee Activities' job plan item/s for the refugee customer
• tell the refugee customer of their mutual obligation and reporting requirements

Note: RAC is an approved activity. BTSR job seekers are not exempt from mutual obligations requirements once their 'Refugee in first 13 Weeks' (REF) exemption expires, unless they qualify for a mutual obligation exemption under a different criteria. BTSR job seekers with an activity of RAC remain Centrelink managed for the duration of the RAC activity.

See Table 1 on the Process page.

Refugee Activities

Most refugees who are eligible for the BTSR measure will have the Refugee Activities (RAC) activity record on the Activity and Exemptions Summary (AEX) screen.

To be eligible for this activity, the newly arrived refugee will be participating in one or more of the following:

• the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP)
• the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)
• Workforce Australia as a volunteer

Note: when the Job Plan is being negotiated, the refugee does not need to provide evidence they are participating in these activities.

If the refugee is not participating in HSP, AMEP or Workforce Australia, discuss a possible referral to one of these. If the refugee requests a referral to a Workforce Australia Provider as a volunteer, they must only be referred if they have:

• chosen to be referred, and
• had an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) completed (only if medical conditions and medical evidence exist), and
• negotiated a Job Plan with Services Australia

If the refugee declines a referral to HSP, AMEP or Workforce Australia, another appropriate compulsory requirement will need to be recorded on the AEX screen (for example, the requirement referred by an ESAt assessor (if appropriate), Skills for Education and Employment, part-time work or voluntary work).

As per normal processing, Service Officers will need to consider the work capacity of the job seeker when negotiating a Job Plan. The system will determine the most appropriate Job Plan Item to be added to the refugee's Job Plan. This is based on the coding on the AEX screen.

For further information, see Refugee Activities (RAC) as an approved activity.

Other Activities

Newly arrived refugees also have the option to participate in any other approved activity to fully meet their requirements. For example:

• participation in Skills for Education and Employment (SEE), where eligible, or
• if they are meeting suitable part-time work/voluntary work requirements and are:
• a principal carer
• have been assessed as having a Partial Capacity to Work (PCW), or
• are 60 or over

Refugees eligible for the BTSR measure must have an activity recorded on the Activity and Exemptions Summary (AEX) screen before their Job Plan is negotiated.

Most newly arrived refugees will have the Refugee Activities (RAC) activity record on the AEX screen.

Once RAC is coded on the AEX screen, a message advising 'this customer is eligible for the BTSR measure' will present on the Job Plan cover page. The Job Plan will auto-populate with the following text 'I agree to undertake refugee activities to help adjust to life in Australia and to increase my chances of finding work from [Start date] to [End date] to include participation in [Program]'.

To complete the Job Plan, See Negotiating Centrelink Managed Job Plans.

Customers who are eligible for QTIs are not eligible for the Better Targeting of Support for Refugees measures. Service Officers must review the customer's Activities and Exemptions details in line with QTI arrangements. See Quarterly Participation Interviews for Partial Capacity to work and Temporary Reduced Work Capacity (0-7 or 8-14 hours per week) job seekers, for more information.

Refugees who require a referral to Workforce Australia - Transition to Work (TtW), Community Development Program (CDP) or Disability Employment Services (DES) are not eligible for the Better Targeting of Support for Refugee measures. Service Officers must refer refugees to TtW/CDP/DES at their 12-week refugee post exemption review contact. Service Officers do not need to create a Job Plan for refugees who are referred to TtW, CDP or DES.

The Participation Summary screen will display an Action Item if the customer requires a referral to TtW, CDP or DES.

Refugees who choose to be referred to Workforce Australia within the first 12 months remain eligible for the BTSR measure, and continue to be Centrelink managed. If the refugee no longer wishes to participate with a Workforce Australia provider, they need to contact their provider to request to be exited. The Centrelink Job Plan must remain in place, and the refugee must continue with the approved activity/ies as outlined in their Job Plan.

For more information on the eligibility of newly arrived refugees to remain Centrelink managed see:

• Refugee entrant service offer, and
• Refugee Service Offer, located on the Resources page

At the end of the Centrelink managed period, the refugee customer must attend the 12-month refugee circumstance review appointment with Services Australia. At this appointment, if the refugee customer is eligible, a compulsory referral is made to a Workforce Australia provider.

A 12-month refugee circumstance review appointment automatically creates if there is no referral to Workforce Australia for the refugee customer. This appointment will be booked at the refugee customer's local service centre. A Manual Follow Up (MFU) activity will be created for Service Officers to manually book the appointment if there is no appointment available.

See Table 2 on the Process page.