Restoring payment where a payment suspension (participation) has been imposed for Community Development Program (CDP) participants 001-10080020

A CDP participant's participation payment may be suspended 'Did not attend compulsory participation appointment or activity' (APA) when a suspension failure is generated or they do not accept a reconnection requirement for a suspension failure.

The suspension is imposed to encourage the CDP participant to re-engage with their requirements as quickly as possible. For this reason, payment should only be restored when the CDP participant:

• has accepted a re-engagement requirement and a re-engagement appointment has been booked with their CDP provider in the Online Diary
• has self-re-engaged, or re-engaged following an earlier refusal to re-engage, by attending an appointment with their CDP provider after the event date of the latest suspension failure
• is not required to re-engage due to their circumstances and this has been discussed with the Services Australia
• is no longer required to re-engage with their CDP provider as they have been notified of the requirement to attend a Comprehensive Compliance Assessment (CCA) instead

Where a suspension failure is invalid and finalised or rejected without CDP participant contact and there are no other suspension failures outstanding, the CDP participant's payment should be restored.

The decision to restore the CDP participant's payment occurs during or immediately after the investigation of the suspension failure providing the CDP participant accepts the reconnection requirement. Restoration should not occur if re-engagement has not been discussed because the CDP participant terminates the call or the call is disconnected.

A CDP participant's participation payment may be suspended 'Non-Attendance Report Received' (suspension reason ANR) when a valid Non-Attendance Report (NAR) is received due to not attending an appointment (including reconnection appointments) with their provider. Payment is restored automatically once contact has been established between the CDP participant and their provider and the NAR is finalised, and:

• the CDP participant has attended a reconnection appointment, or
• the provider does not require the CDP participant to reconnect

When payment is restored, the CDP participant will receive payment back to the date the suspension started.

Services Australia staff are unable to manually restore an ANR suspension via the Benefit Action (BA) screen prior to finalising the NAR. If this is attempted the error message 'E466PB - Unable to restore when a NAR is pending' will appear with the following details:

• This customer is currently suspended as there is an outstanding Non Attendance Report (NAR) that they need to resolve with their employment services provider
• The customer needs to contact their provider and have the NAR completed in order for their payment to be restored
• The customer will need to submit any outstanding reports once their payment has been restored

In limited circumstances, PST-skilled Service Officers with WNPPD or PFDEC security resources are able to manually finalise a NAR where:

• the participant has attempted to contact and re-engage with their CDP provider during the provider's standard opening hours, and
• they have been unable to re-engage due to circumstances outside their control, and
• they have contacted Services Australia to discuss, and
• Services Australia has:
• also been unsuccessful in contacting the provider, or
• confirmed the provider is unable to finalise the NAR, or
• received formal advice that the provider site is closed

Examples of circumstances outside the participant's control where a PST-skilled SO should manually finalise a NAR in order to restore an ANR suspension include:

• The CDP provider office is closed temporarily, for example, due to lack of staffing or other issues, or
• Community events such as sorry business or community unrest have required the CDP provider to temporarily cease offering services, or
• There are no case managers available at the CDP provider office to action the NAR, or
• The provider is unable to finalise the NAR as:
• the participant is no longer on the provider's caseload; for example, they have relocated and are now linked to a new provider, or
• there are connectivity or systems issues

Where mutual obligation requirements are suspended, for example, due to a natural disaster or a lockdown due to COVID-19, an Operational Message is published to advise of impacted CDP regions.

In these circumstances, outstanding NARs are automatically finalised by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). If a CDP participant from an impacted region contacts Services Australia and an outstanding NAR has not been automatically finalised, they should be referred to a PST-skilled SO. The PST-skilled SO should manually finalise the NAR in order to restore the ANR suspension.

If the CDP participant does not accept the reconnection requirement, their payment will remain suspended until they agree to re-engage or Services Australia has confirmed they have attended an appointment with their CDP provider. In this case, where the suspension was 'Did not attend compulsory participation appointment or activity' (APA), the decision to restore the CDP participant's payment may occur when the CDP participant contacts Services Australia or the 'FAILAPA' manual follow up activity appears on the CDP participant's record to confirm their attendance.

Restoration will occur automatically for suspension 'Non-Attendance Report Received' (ANR) once the provider has finalised the NAR and recorded that the CDP participant has either attended an appointment with them or is not required to re-engage.

Service Officers with a PFDEC or WNPPD security resource are responsible for the following action in relation to 'Did not attend compulsory participation appointment or activity' (APA) suspensions:

• determining if payment can be restored
• manually restoring payment on the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• completing the 'Restore payment' (FAILAPA) manual follow up activity (where one exists)