Circumstances impacting job seeker compliance 001-10050000

Mutual obligation requirements are designed to ensure job seekers are actively looking for work and are participating in activities designed to help them into employment. Importantly mutual obligation requirements should:

• be tailored to a job seeker's individual circumstances, and
• be achievable

Job seekers are encouraged to tell their Employment Services Provider (or the Digital Services Contact Centre (DSCC) if they are a Workforce Australia Online for Individuals) of any circumstances that may impact their ability to meet their requirements. For example, job seekers should be encouraged to tell their provider if they are unable to meet their requirements because they have:

• caring responsibilities
• legal (including court ordered) requirements
• ongoing/chronic medical conditions
• homelessness concerns or issues

Note: the above list of circumstances is not complete, further information is available on the Resources page.

This includes encouraging job seekers to record Personal Events via their Individual Homepage (Workforce Australia job seekers) or Online Dashboard (DES Participants) to ensure their provider is aware of personal appointments/commitments.

Job seekers who tell their provider of their circumstances will ensure their requirements are appropriately tailored to their needs. In addition, providers will use information regarding a job seekers circumstances to:

• tailor Job Plan requirements to the individual's circumstances
• determine if a mutual obligation failure or compliance action has occurred, and/or
• determine if Services Australia should investigate a potential penalty or failure is applied

Staff who identify a job seeker is affected by a circumstance must record them within the Circumstances Impacting Compliance workflow. The evidence to support the recording of a circumstance can include:

• the job seekers statement
• information available on their record, or
• a consult with a Specialist Officer (for example, a Social Work consult)

During a Capability Assessment (CA), all circumstance must be assessed, but only the circumstances that have a minimum level of evidence recorded against them will directly impact the outcome of the assessment. The Resources page provides a list of circumstances and the minimum level of evidence required for the circumstance to directly impact the CA outcome.

The circumstance category indicates how often a particular circumstance affects the job seeker's ability to meet their mutual obligation requirements. When an assessment of a circumstance is completed, the category outcome will be either:

• Does not impact ability to comply, requirements reasonable
• nil impact on a job seekers ability to meet their mutual obligation requirements
• Sometimes impacts ability to comply, requirements reasonable
• occasionally impacts, rather than impacting all of the time
• Regularly impacts ability to comply, requirements require update
• the circumstances often impacts the job seeker from meeting their requirements

All Service Officers and specialists are responsible for identifying when a job seeker circumstance should be:

• recorded, and/or
• updated

Importantly, job seekers who present with family and domestic violence must have a consult with a social worker. PST-skilled social workers accept consults relating to job seeker compliance actions, and social workers within service centres or smart centres accept consults for all other matters. See the Process page for further information.