Deferred referral to Employment Services Providers 001-02330030

A job seeker's referral to Workforce Australia or Disability Employment Services (DES) may need to be deferred in some circumstances. Deferred referrals may be recorded:

• automatically by the system, or
• manually by Service Officers

Deferred referrals may be identified at any time, for example when running the Participation Interview.

Services Australia is required to complete deferred referrals for job seekers who:

• have a current exemption and do not want to volunteer for employment services
• are receiving Parenting Payment and have participation requirements but have a current Temporary Reduced Work Capacity (TRWC) of 0-14 hours per week at Participation Interview stage
• are in receipt of Youth Allowance (YA) and have been identified as potentially eligible for a referral to a combination of approved Youth Activities at the Participation Interview stage

If a YA job seeker under 22 years of age is identified in the Participation Interview as benefiting from a combination of approved Youth Activities, the system will automatically create a deferred referral to Workforce Australia.

Job Seekers with mutual obligation requirements who have attended an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) may be identified as requiring a referral to DES. In some circumstances the referral may need to be temporarily deferred.

Job seekers with work capacity of 8-14 hours per week can volunteer to receive DES assistance. See Referring a job seeker to Disability Employment Services (DES).

The Assessor may also recommend participation in a voluntary requirement such as psychological counselling provided by a community mental health service before the job seeker is referred to DES.

Job seekers who need a deferred referral must be referred to the recommended employment service as soon as the deferral period ends.

The system creates different activities for referrals to:

• Workforce Australia
• DES, or
• Youth Activities