Reviews of Disability Employment Services (DES) participation 008-04030100

DES provides specialist employment assistance to help people with a disability, injury or health condition find and retain sustainable employment in the open labour market.

DES gives customers access to:

• support while training for a particular job, where the training may be provided by the service or subcontracted to another agency
• help in finding a job and starting employment in the open labour market
• continuing support once they have commenced employment

When a job seeker lives in a Department of Employment and Workplace Relations remote area, they are referred to a Community Development Program (CDP) provider. The CDP provider will provide services similar to DES for remote job seekers.

DES programs give job seekers 2 years of individual tailored assistance.

If a job seeker is exited from DES they need an ESAt to determine if a new referral is appropriate. From 1 July 2021, eligibility changes may mean a previously eligible job seeker is no longer eligible for a new referral.

Job seekers who have been in employment for 52 weeks will have an assessment of ongoing support requirements.

Prior to 1 July 2024

Job seekers were given an initial 18 months in DES programs before needing to undertake a program review. The purpose of the review was to determine if the job seeker:

• would benefit from a further 6 months of assistance in DES
• should be referred to another service, or
• should be exited from DES

The Program Summary gives information on the job seeker's progress in DES including achievements and barriers to achieving and/or maintaining sustainable employment.

The DES provider prepares a Program Summary Report once a customer has completed the DES program and is being exited.

Services Australia staff can view the job seeker's most recent DES Program Summary Report in the Referrals Summary menu.

See Item 1 on the Process page for more details.

A PAA is generated for 28 days after a customer has been exited from a DES program. The contact will involve job seekers attending an interview with a Service Officer to review their current situation and, if necessary, to re-engage them with an Employment Services Provider using the Online Diary.

A PAA review is only applicable for a Centrelink managed job seeker. For further information on the PAA review, see Post Approved Activity (PAA) Review Job Plan Contact.

A request to update the job seeker's interpreter information on their record can be made to Services Australia by a DES provider on behalf of the customer.

If a DES provider identifies that a customer's interpreter information is inaccurate, they can ask the job seeker to complete the 'Authority for Centrelink to update Interpreter information' form which they can fax to the agency to action. The form includes the customer's consent to update their record and the type of interpreter they wish to have coded.

See Item 2 on the Process page for more details.

Since 1 July 2010, where a DES provider is assisting a job seeker with moderate intellectual disability, the provider may be eligible for additional funding to provide services to the job seeker. DES providers are only eligible for this additional funding if the customer's Intelligence Quotient is less than 60.

DES providers should only contact the agency for information to determine the customer's IQ in circumstances where they are unable to obtain it from alternative sources such as:

• an existing copy of an IQ assessment report
• a signed statement from a registered psychologist
• an education authority (for example, a special school report) in the customer or nominee's possession which states the assessed IQ score

When a provider requests a customer's IQ information from Services Australia, they will fax an 'Authority to obtain information from Centrelink' form signed by the customer to the local service centre.

In some cases, the Assessment report and the other information at the agency's disposal will not be sufficient to determine the customer's IQ. The agency is only expected to provide IQ information at their disposal based on the medical information in the Medical Information File Envelope (MIFE).

See Item 3 on the Process page for more details.