Non-attendance failure penalties 001-10120110

The Job Seeker Compliance Framework focuses on encouraging CDP participants receiving participation payments to remain engaged with their Provider and to comply with their mutual obligation requirements. Financial penalties are only imposed for failures within a CDP participant's control, for example, as a result of deliberate or persistent non-compliance.

A non-attendance failure will be applied following investigation of the reported failure when a CDP participant does not have a reasonable excuse for not attending a compulsory appointment with their provider that was not a reconnection or further reconnection requirement and:

• they are currently receiving a participation payment, and
• a Non-Attendance Report (NAR) has been accepted by Services Australia for the same incident date

When a non-attendance failure is applied, the CDP participant enters into a non-attendance failure penalty period. A penalty amount will be calculated for each business day of the non-attendance failure period.

A non-attendance failure period commences from the earliest date the CDP participant is deemed to have been notified their participation payment is not payable due to the appointment they missed. This is referred to as the deemed date of notification and is recorded in the NAR summary on the Participation Compliance Hub screen.

The deemed date of notification is dependent on the method of notification. For notification:

• as a letter, the deemed date of notification will be eight days from date of despatch
• by email or SMS, the deemed date of notification is the date of validation of the NAR (that is, the date the NAR was accepted by the Services Australia system)
• verbally, the deemed date of notification is the date the verbal notification was issued

When a letter, email or SMS is sent but another form of notification is also successful, the earliest deemed date will be used to calculate the penalty.

A non-attendance failure period commences from the deemed date of notification that their participation payment is not payable due to the appointment they missed, and will end the day before one of the following:

• the CDP participant's reconnection requirement
• the day the provider deems the CDP participant has met the requirement
• the day the provider determines they are no longer required to comply with the reconnection requirement
• the day the provider attempts but is unable to book a re-engagement appointment within two working days excluding public holidays (providing the CDP participant has agreed to re-engage)
• Services Australia determines the CDP participant no longer has the capacity (for example when an exemption from their mutual obligation requirements has been granted) to comply
• the CDP participant is formally notified of a requirement to attend a Comprehensive Compliance Assessment (CCA)
• the CDP participant's re-engagement appointment is rescheduled/cancelled by their provider
• the CDP participant's participation payment is cancelled to grant a non-participation payment
• the CDP participant's participation payment is cancelled for at least 10 weeks or re-granted with a break in payment, or
• the CDP participant commences a serious failure period or Unemployment Non-Payment Period (UNPP)

Non-attendance failure penalties are based on a business day calculation. This means the CDP participant will generally accrue a daily penalty equal to one tenth of their fortnightly payment for each day the penalty applies. Saturdays and Sundays falling in a non-attendance failure period will not accrue a penalty.

The non-attendance failure penalty is calculated based on the CDP participant's basic benefit and certain supplementary payments. The non-attendance failure penalty is calculated after the income and assets test has been applied to the CDP participant's basic benefit but before any withholdings of penalty amounts for previous failures or withholdings are deducted for debts or advance payments.

The following participation related supplements are included in the calculation of the non-attendance failure penalty:

• Approved Program of Work Supplement (APWS)
• Language, Literacy and Numeracy Supplement (LLNS)
• Energy Supplement paid on a fortnightly basis. Note: the Energy Supplement is not included in the penalty calculation if it is paid on a quarterly basis

CDP participants are required to continue to meet their regular reporting requirements during a non-attendance failure period.

Further non-attendance failures, connection and No Show, No Pay failures cannot be applied when the failure event occurred during a period the CDP participant was in a non-attendance failure period.

A non-attendance failure or reconnection failure that relates to a different sequence of failures, such as linked to a different NAR/failure event cannot be applied during a non-attendance failure period.