Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) referral 008-03180010

If the JCA referral is:

• for a Disability Support Pension (DSP) new claim, go to Step 2
• part of a formal review (Authorised Review Officer (ARO)), see the Customer First subtab
• for an Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) review, see Reviews and appeals for DSP rejection or cancellation decisions. Procedure ends here
• for a customer claiming a foreign pension, see Foreign pension medical assessments. Procedure ends here
• for 'no future work capacity' portability assessments, see Assessment for Disability Support Pension (DSP) customers going overseas under the no future work capacity provisions. Note: this is a CIS only referral. Procedure ends here
• for a request for an explanation, check Document List (DL)/Notes for a DOC advising an explanation is pending. Referral for a JCA related to an explanation will be actioned by a Subject Matter Expert (SME)
• for Supported Wage System (SWS) assessment requests received from Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, see Supported Wage System (SWS) medical eligibility assessment process. Procedure ends here

Check Documents icon for the Disability Support Pension Medical Eligibility Assessment Recommendation (SA479) and/or a DOC with a subject line of 'MAT DSP recommendation'.

Confirm the recommendation supports a JCA referral is required. The Assessor must submit a recommendation (MAT report/SA479) to be available in Documents. See Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP).

Has a MAT report/SA479 been completed recommending a JCA referral?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, see Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP)

Before requesting a JCA Referral for a DSP new claim:

• Check if the customer is clearly ineligible on non-medical criteria. A full assessment of non-medical eligibility is not required prior to JCA referral, but if it is clear the customer is ineligible for DSP, for example, customer is over Age Pension age, Income & Assets are over threshold or customer has a Compensation Preclusion Period which does not end within 13 weeks, do not refer for a JCA. Note: the MAT Recommendation DOC may indicate 'Assess non-medical eligibility before referring for a JCA,' this note can be disregarded. For more information see Rejecting a new claim for DSP
• If the customer is in receipt of JSP or YAL-JSK and is not a New Zealand non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder, check the Claiming DSP exemption has been automatically applied for 104 weeks on the Activity & Exemption (AEX) screen. See Jobseeker Payment (JSP) and Youth Allowance (YA) (Provisional)
• Check the DSP claim start date (PNA) is correct and does not require updating due to backdating or early claim provisions. See Streaming a new claim for DSP for more information
• Check the customer's residence status. See Residence assessment for customers claiming DSP:
  • If the customer is a non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder, the customer does not satisfy the residence requirements for DSP, but may qualify under an International Agreement. Do not refer for a JCA. Re-categorise the DSP claim to a Centrelink International Services new claim work item, complete any supporting work items and make sure the claim is not on hold. See Residence assessment for customers claiming DSP for details of new claim work item
  • If the customer is an Australian resident with less than 10 years Australian residence and no Qualifying residence exemption (QRE), an assessment of where the customer's CITW occurred is required as part of the JCA. Ensure this is correctly answered when completing the JCA Referral Workflow in Process Direct

Make sure all medical and other relevant information has been scanned and added to the electronic MIFE (eMIFE).

To view eMIFE information:

• select Documents icon

If documents are scanned incorrectly and need to be separated or reclassified:

• to update the Document Details (reclassify) – see Moving, copying or updating Centrelink digital images
• to separate (split) documents for Service Officers with processing delegation – see Requesting a document rescan, retrieval or location

Has all available medical evidence been scanned correctly?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, go to Step 5

A JCA referral must not be made until all available medical information and the MAT report/SA479 has been scanned and attached to the eMIFE.

See Streaming a new Claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP).

Service Officer must check the claim details and the customer's record to ensure all contact details are correct. This includes checking the customer's interpreter requirements are correctly recorded and their Nominee details (if appropriate).

If there are changes to the customer's contact details, these must be updated manually within the DSP new claim activity. See Updating address details for assistance with the following:

• Address (AD)
• Accommodation details (AC)
• Phone (!TCD)
• Email address (EMA)
• Other Contact Details (OCD) - this field must have confirmed data otherwise the JCA referral request will require rework.

Note: Manual coding involves updating any changes to contact details within the DSP NCL activity to ensure this information is updated via a SAD (REA) activity – See Updating address details.

An ACS update is not required where there has been no change of address and/or accommodation details. Where rent has not been verified in the last 12 months, this can be updated, as required, when the claim is finalised.

Note: where Accommodation (ACS) is updated with Rent Verification: code 'NCL' within the DSP claim and updated via a SAD (REA) activity, this automatically reverts to Rent Verification code 'COA' and cannot be changed back to NCL. Where this occurs, record this in the DSP Claim Progress DOC on DL/Notes.

Check the following on the customer's record:

• the XRN field in the header, and
• for JSR/ACT on Benefit Status line

Is the customer's Job Seeker Registration active (JSR/ACT)?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No,
  • Make sure customer data (specifically OCD, CRES, RSLEG and RSIMME) is coded or has been updated within a SAD (REA) activity - when the customer data is coded and confirmed, Process Direct attempts to complete the registration when a JCA referral is created
  • Go to Step 8

An ESAt/JCA report should automatically finalise 28 days after acceptance. During this time a new JCA referral for a DSP claim cannot be actioned, unless the ESAt/JCA report is finalised early – this is called an 'early finalisation.'

Any previous JCA or Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) referrals must have a status of Finalised or Unable To Complete before a new JCA referral can be recorded.

Check if the previous ESAt/JCA report has been accepted

An ESAt/JCA will not show a status of 'accepted.'

Accepted ESAt/JCA reports retain the status of Submitted until the system runs the finalisation process and the status changes to Finalised.

There will be no NSS/JCA activity on the Activity List (AL) screen if the report has been accepted. To check if a report has been accepted:

Process Direct

Check if report has been accepted

• Type MCSS in the Super Key field and enter
• On the Medical Assessment table, locate the ESA or JCA under the Channel Code column
• Scroll across to the Acceptance Date column

Check if report has a Finalised status

The status can be found on the ESAt/JCA View Referral screen which is accessed via the following:

• key 'RRSUM' in the Super Key field, select Enter
• Select > DSP Claim Summary > JCA/ESAt, or
• Select > Participation Summary > Activity type/Non-applied exemptions > Referral Summary

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has a status of Unable to Complete

No further action is required on the previous ESAt/JCA report, a new JCA Referral request can be actioned – go to Step 9.

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has not been accepted

Where an ESAt has been attended, and not yet submitted or DSP Appeal JCA is in progress, refer to Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP) for action required.

Where neither of the above is applicable to the previous unaccepted ESAt/JCA report, refer to:

• Checking and actioning Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) reports - for an unaccepted ESAt Report
• Checking and actioning a Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) report - for an unaccepted JCA Report

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has been accepted but the status is not showing as Finalised

The relevant access for a Service Officer to action an 'early finalisation' is detailed at Step 2 in the Process tab of Request to finalise an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) report to create a new JCA referral.

To request (manual) early finalisation of the JCA/ESAt report:

Service Officers with the relevant access can -

• Go to the Transaction Summary (TS) screen
• Select > DSP Claim Summary
• Select JCA/ESAt icon to view previous reports
• Identify report with status of Accepted and use Reference ID hyperlink to enter the referral
• Select Request Finalisation

Service Officer does not have the relevant access -

• Staff without relevant access must refer to a Service Support Officer (SSO) via the Direct Referral to SSO web form to request an 'early finalise' action of the ESAt or JCA. See Resources in Request to finalise an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) report to create a new JCA referral.

Once all previous ESAt/JCA reports have a Finalised or Unable to Complete status, check if new medical evidence has been lodged.

Has new medical evidence been lodged?

• Yes, go to Step 9
• No, see Table 2 > Step 1

Is the new medical evidence indicating potential manifest medical eligibility?

• Yes, annotate the DSP Claim Progress DOC with 'Medical evidence lodged containing new information. Assessment by MAT required'. Create a MAT referral as per the below:
  • Go to the TS screen
  • Select > Referral
  • Referral Type: Medical Assessment Team Referral
  • Referral Reason: Query MAT - New evidence or Trm Ill - SA494/SA495/Other (if SA495 or other evidence indicating terminal illness is lodged). If Trm Ill - SA494/SA495/Other MAT referral is used, add additional text to referral that MAT Recommendation dated DD/MM/YYYY requires review as new medical evidence has been lodged
  • Select Finish
  • The claim status automatically sets to On Hold for reason Awaiting MAT recommendation
  • Procedure ends here
• No, see Table 2 > Step 1