Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) overview 001-02330000

ESAts may be used by the agency to inform decisions regarding payments and allowances and to determine the level of participation required for job seekers with mutual obligation requirements or DSP recipients with participation requirements. ESAts ensure that disadvantaged job seekers are referred to the most appropriate Employment Service based on an assessment of the impact of identified barriers on their capacity to participate. A copy of the ESAt report is made available to the job seeker's Employment Services Provider. ESAts are conducted by Assessors. As part of the assessment process, Assessors have access to relevant available information about the job seeker including current and past medical/disability information and prior participation and employment history.

ESAts are used to identify:

• barriers to finding and maintaining employment (this may relate to the impact of a person's disability, injury, illness, or other disadvantage)
• work capacity (in hour bandwidths)
• interventions/assistance that may be of benefit to improve their current work capacity, and
• the most appropriate employment service / Programme of Support for customers including:
• Workforce Australia Employment Services Providers
• Disability Employment Service Providers
• Complementary Programmes

ESAts are used to assess customers:

• with mutual obligation requirements or participation requirements (including Disability Support Pension (DSP) customers under 35 with participation requirements)
• temporarily not able to work or study without a job or study to return to
• applying for Youth Disability Supplement (YDS)
• receiving Disability Support Pension (DSP) and volunteering for employment assistance
• after their DSP claim has been rejected and the Medical Assessment Team (MAT) recommend a review of work capacity and/or employment services referrals

This assessment considers medical and non-medical barriers to participation, work capacity, employment support requirements and suitable referrals. Current and relevant medical evidence must be provided, and recorded in the electronic Medical Information File Envelope (eMIFE).

Some examples of medical evidence needed for an ESAt are:

• Verification of Medical Conditions (SU684) form, and/or
• Letters from the job seeker's treating health professional, specialist reports or hospital reports
• Other written medical evidence/certificate that provides information about the customer's medical condition(s), such as diagnosis, symptoms and treatment

Staff must check with the customer that medical evidence is available and can be supplied before the appointment.

This assessment considers a customer's non-medical barriers to employment and recommends referral to suitable services. The non-medical ESAt is the default where no medical conditions or specific personal factors are recorded. A non-medical ESAt can turn into a medical ESAt where there is evidence of medical condition(s).

A request for an ESAt can be made by either the agency or Employment Services Providers.

The requirement for an ESAt request can be identified by the agency and Employment Service Providers usually through an update of the customer's Job Seeker Snapshot. Requests may also be made as part of participation compliance processes.

Job seekers automatically referred to Workforce Australia Online for Individuals may have an ESAt request identified after completing the Job Seeker Snapshot online.

Service Officers and Refugee and Asylum Seeker (RAS) Officers can also manually request an ESAt for a customer. In these circumstances, the Service Officer is required to record the reason for the referral within the request.

Before requesting an ESAt, Service Officers must:

• determine that an assessment is required (including checking whether there is a current and valid assessment that could be applied), and
• conduct a pre-referral process, to check the customer's details, ensure there are no open ESAt requests or ESAt appointments booked on the customer's record and ensure that all necessary medical documentation and other information is available to the Assessor

Requests for ESAts are received via:

• RFL/UPD activities (as an outcome of the Job Seeker Snapshot)
• JSR/UPD activities (as an outcome of the Job Seeker Snapshot)
• Fast Note (manual requests from service officers) - see Request an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt)

Assessment Services team members will book and complete ESAt requests using the Online Diary which is linked to the Employment Services System (ESSWeb).

In some cases it may be appropriate to defer an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) referral for up to 13 weeks due to a customer's circumstances.

A pending activity for a Job Seeker Snapshot initiated ESAt may also be withdrawn where it is not required. For example, when the customer has been granted a temporary incapacity exemption due to a serious illness. See Actioning a pending Job Seeker Snapshot initiated Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) activity.

A customer's recent employment can assist with assessing work capacity and employment assistance programs, where appropriate. The Assessor may trigger a process to search the customer's record for recently declared earnings. The information search will consist of date last worked/date last declared earnings, excluding earnings from an Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE) (formerly known as Business Services) and Supported Wage System (SWS). If the customer has declared earnings within the last 2 years, then date last worked/date last declared income is sent to and displayed in ESSWeb.

An ESAt may become a JCA if the Assessor decides that there is sufficient evidence to assign an Impairment Rating and the customer is likely to meet Disability Support Pension (DSP) eligibility criteria. The resulting assessment can be used to assess the customer's eligibility for DSP.

Certain events will trigger the need for an ESAt, although the decision to request an assessment for a customer will be a decision made by the Service Officer, taking into account information on the customer's record.

The ESAt Assessor completes a report as a general rule.

Where a customer fails to attend an ESAt, the Assessor will attempt to contact and re-engage the customer. An appointment can be rescheduled if there is a reasonable excuse. Assessment Services are responsible for cancelling and rescheduling all ESAt appointments.

Complaints about an ESAt may be received at a service centre or smart centre. Complaints about Assessment Services can be lodged through the Customer Relations Unit.

For information about requests for reviews of a decision, see Initial contact about a decision and the review of decision process.