Ongoing Support (Work Assist) 008-04030070

Ongoing Support (Work Assist) provides support to eligible employees who have difficulty fulfilling the essential requirements of their role due to their injury, disability or health condition. The IEA provider will work with the Work Assist participant and their employer to provide supports to maximise the chance of the participant maintaining their employment.

For an employee to be eligible for Ongoing Support (Work Assist) their employer must be of the view that their employee is having difficulties performing the essential requirements of their job. This difficulty must be due to the impact of their injury, disability or health condition, and the employee must:

• be currently employed
• have been working in that job over a consecutive 12 week period, or there is an expectation that the job will last for at least 12 weeks
• require Ongoing Support to keep their job

Ongoing Support (Work Assist) is not provided to assist a customer with finding new employment.

A customer does not require an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) to access Ongoing Support (Work Assist). The IEA provider can determine if a customer meets the relevant criteria for Ongoing Support (Work Assist). The IEA provider then makes the referral and commences the customer in the program.

Services Australia has no role in making a formal assessment of a customer’s eligibility for Work Assist. However, where the customer first approaches Services Australia seeking ongoing support though Work Assist, staff may need to contact an IEA provider for guidance about whether their assistance is likely to be suitable for the customer.

Customers can access Ongoing Support (Work Assist) either by directly approaching an IEA provider, or through Services Australia.

If the customer directly approaches the IEA provider and their eligibility for Ongoing Support (Work Assist) is confirmed, Services Australia normally has no role in their registration. If the customer approaches Services Australia seeking ongoing support through Ongoing Support (Work Assist), Services Australia's role is to immediately connect the customer to an IEA provider. In this situation, the referral is not made via the Online Diary, but rather by:

• (wherever possible) contacting the customer's chosen IEA provider by phone and arranging for the customer to meet the provider; or
• giving the customer details of available local IEA providers so that the customer can directly register with a provider of their choice

Once the customer commences with IEA, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations will notify Services Australia about the referral status, which will be automatically updated on the individual customer record.

Eligible customers include those who have an injury, disability or health condition which means they are:

• at risk of losing their jobs, or
• having trouble coping at work

A connection to an IEA provider should be offered to a customer if it is possible they would benefit from Ongoing Support (Work Assist).

Normal assessment and referral procedures for IEA are streamlined to ensure that eligible customers can start receiving assistance as soon as possible.

If a customer is seeking to be referred to an IEA provider, Services Australia should also check whether the customer already has a Customer Reference Number (from a 'person' record, not a 'child' record).

Staff should ensure that the customer (or the IEA provider) has this reference number, to assist the provider with the direct registration process. If the customer does not already have a 'person' record, staff should create a 'shell' record for the customer while they are present.