Re-engaging job seekers - Targeted Compliance Framework 001-18030205

When a mutual obligation failure is committed the resulting action is dependent on the Targeted Compliance Framework zone the job seeker is in.

Job seekers in the green zone or warning zone will receive a notice from the Employment Services System (ESS) when they miss a requirement. The notice tells the job seeker:

• they did not meet a requirement, and
• they must contact their provider or their payment will be put on hold

To avoid payment suspension the job seeker must, within 5 business days:

• contact their provider to explain the reason for non-compliance, and
• meet any re-engagement requirement issued by the provider

If they fail to contact and/or re-engage with their provider, their payment will be suspended after 5 business days.

The decision to suspend is made by either the ESS or the job seeker's provider. A trigger is sent to Services Australia electronically to trigger the suspension.

Job seekers in the financial penalty zone will have their payment suspended immediately when they miss a requirement. The decision to suspend is made either by the ESS or the provider. An automatic trigger is sent to Services Australia.

Types of participation suspensions:

• TCW - Provider work refusal failure
• TCF - Did not meet provider requirement

Where a participation suspension has been applied, compliance action will appear in the job seeker's Participation Compliance Hub (BIPCW) under Completed/provider to action with the status of the compliance action as Yet to meet requirement.

The payment suspension period is worked out as follows.

• Start date of the suspension is:
  • generally the start of the instalment period in which the mutual obligation failure occurred, or
  • the start of the next instalment period where the trigger to suspend payment is received after the job seeker reports
• Payment is restored when the:
  • job seeker complies with the connection requirement issued by the provider, or
  • provider determines that the job seeker is no longer required to reconnect, or
  • job seeker is no longer required to reconnect, for example the job seeker has been granted an exemption

When payment is suspended as a result of a work refusal failure, the suspension begins at the start of the:

• instalment period in which the work refusal failure occurred, or
• next instalment period when the suspension trigger is received after the job seeker reports

Payment is restored when:

• the job seeker contacts the provider to discuss the reasons they refused work, or
• before then, when the:
  • job seeker is granted an exemption which includes the incident date of the work refusal failure, or
  • provider determines the job seeker had a valid reason for refusing work or the job seeker is no longer required to reconnect for another reason determined by the provider

The provider has full responsibility for setting and notifying job seekers of their reconnection requirement following a mutual obligation failure.

Reconnection requirements must be formally notified to the job seeker. The provider uses a verbal script to do that. The job seeker will receive a message telling them to:

• contact the provider about the missed requirement when the job seeker's payment is suspended, and
• attempt to report prior to contacting their provider

Reconnection requirements issued by the provider depend on the nature of the job seeker's missed requirement:

• The reconnection requirement will be to attend a provider appointment for:
  • non-attendance or misconduct at an employment services provider appointment, third party appointment, job interview, or
  • failure to take satisfactory action on a job referral
• The job seeker will generally be required to satisfactorily participate in the activity when there has been a non-attendance or misconduct at an activity, such as:
  • Workforce Australia - Work for the Dole
  • approved training or study
• Job seekers would need to:
  • agree to a Job Plan if they have failed to agree to one
  • satisfactorily complete job search where they have failed to do so
• For job seekers in Workforce Australia, including those in Workforce Australia Online, the reconnection requirement for failing to meet the monthly points target will generally be to meet their points requirement by submitting quality job search efforts. They will not start accruing points towards the next monthly points target until they have met the reconnection requirement

The application of a demerit can trigger a Capability Interview or a Capability Assessment. When this happens, the reconnection requirement will be to:

• attend a Capability Interview, or
• contact Services Australia to arrange a Capability Assessment

Where the ESS triggers a Capability Assessment:

• the provider verbally notifies the job seeker of the reconnection requirement
• asks them to contact Services Australia to have a Capability Assessment

Participation Solutions Team (PST)-skilled staff conduct Capability Assessments. The job seeker must be transferred to the Participation Solutions Team (PST).

The job seeker has met their reconnection requirement when they contact PST, even if the Capability Assessment is unable to be completed at the time of contact. However, the job seeker will be unable to report on their next Entitlement Period End Date (EPED) until the Capability Assessment is completed.

For more details, see Capability Assessments.

If a job seeker presents in crisis, consider appropriate service offers including updating the Circumstances Impacting Compliance workflow, assessing an exemption, or completing a Social Work referral.

If a job seeker contacts about their payment suspension and they have not spoken with their provider or Digital Service Contact Centre (DSCC) or met reconnection requirement online for jobs seekers in Workforce Australia Online, for:

Provider managed job seekers:

• Tell the job seeker to contact their provider to discuss
• Alternately, offer to transfer the call directly (cold transfer) to their provider

Job seekers linked to Workforce Australia Online:

• encourage job seekers to try and resolve their query in their Workforce Australia Online account through the Your Tasks menu
• if unable to resolve their query in their Workforce Australia Online account, offer to transfer the call directly (cold transfer) to the DSCC

All suspension reports have a status of 'finalised provider report'

Manual action by PST-skilled staff may be needed when all suspension reports have a status of 'finalised provider report' in the Participation Compliance workflow, but the payment has not restored.

Note: ESS sends triggers to the job seeker's Services Australia record. The trigger to restore payment can be delayed when a staff member has a lock on the record, or the job seeker is using their online account.

PST-skilled staff must check for a manual follow up (MFU) activity. Check the suspension can be restored when there is no MFU.

Do not cancel PST Manual follow up (MFU) activities that are created when restoration has not automatically occurred.

The payment can be restored when the provider finalises all suspension reports by recording one of the following outcomes:

• Re-engagement met (REM)
• Re-engagement not required/no longer required (RNR)
• Cannot re-engage in 2 days (R2D)
• Created in error (CIE)
• Finalised by Provider (FBP)

These outcomes result in a compliance status of 'FNP-Finalised Provider Report' in the Participation Compliance Hub.

Go into the Participation Compliance Hub to check if the Provider Report has a compliance status FNP-Finalised Provider Report. The payment can be manually restored via the Benefit Action (BA) screen in Process Direct, if this has not already occurred. When restoring, complete the Restore (Payment Type) DOV Fast Note and record any relevant information.

For more details, see Outstanding participation compliance activities requiring manual follow-up action.

Not all suspension reports have a status of 'finalised provider report'

If not all suspension reports have a status 'finalised provider report', and the job seeker advises they:

• have contacted their provider or the DSCC, or
• met their requirement via their Workforce Australia Online account

Provider managed job seekers

Contact with the provider is required to confirm the reconnection requirement has been met or is no longer required.

Where the provider confirms that reconnection has been met/no longer required, and ESS (provider system) has been updated to reflect this:

• if the customer is due to report (EPED equals today or earlier date):
  • Manually finalise the re-engagement
    - go to the Participation Compliance Hub (BIPCW), review the list of completed compliance actions and select the relevant failure.
    - on the Re-engagement screen in the Compliance Investigation workflow, indicate the job seeker is no longer required to re-engage by changing the re-engagement outcome to 'No Re-engagement, exceptional circumstances – unable to contact/re-engage'.
    - Record details on a DOC
  • Advise the Portfolio Operations YEE team about the manual finalisation action - Send an email to the Participation Solutions Team (PST) Job Seeker Portfolio positional mailbox with 'TCF suspension Manually Finalised' in the subject line and include the following details:
    - Jobseeker Customer Reference Number (CRN).
    - Provider name.
    - Evidence given from provider to support that reconnection was met or no longer required
• if customer is not yet due to report:
  • encourage provider to escalate to their help desk
  • escalate to MySupport and doc the record

Where the provider does not confirm that reconnection has been met or is no longer required:

• Tell the job seeker to contact their provider to discuss
• Alternately, offer to transfer the call directly (cold transfer) to the provider

Job seekers with Workforce Australia Online:

• encourage the job seeker to contact the DSCC to discuss, or
• offer to transfer the call directly (cold transfer) to the DSCC

PST-skilled staff only may reassess the CDR cancellation decision if there is evidence that:

• the job seeker contacted their provider or the Digital Services Contact Centre (for job seekers linked to Workforce Australia Online) and/or attended a re-engagement appointment however the provider/DSCC coding is incorrect or incomplete, resulting in an incorrect CDR cancellation
• the incorrect appointment type was booked, for example a contact appointment was booked instead of a re-engagement appointment
• attendance at the re-engagement appointment occurred, but a system error resulted in incorrect cancellation
• contact with the provider/DSCC has confirmed the reconnection has been met/no longer required
• the job seeker was unable to meet their mutual obligation requirements on the incident date, or their circumstances have changed since the incident and they are no longer required to reconnect. For example:
  • Their provider/DSCC no longer requires the job seeker to reconnect, or an exemption is or would have been granted during the TCF suspension period

Note: where evidence exists that an exemption would have applied, make sure the exemption is completed post restoration of payment.

For examples of common CDR cancellation scenarios, see the Resources page.

Where evidence exists the cancellation is incorrect and the job seeker's payment can be restored, see Item 9.

Where help or clarification is required to assess the ability to restore the payment, staff must consult with a Virtual Support Queue (VSQ) staff member to confirm if:

• restoration of payment is appropriate, or
• escalation to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk is required

Where insufficient evidence exists to indicate the job seeker has met, or was no longer required to meet their reconnection requirement, tell the job seeker:

• of their review and appeal rights, see First contact about a decision and the internal review process, and
• they will need to reclaim

Procedure ends here.

If the job seeker has:

• not re-claimed payment after the cancellation, see Item 13
• re-claimed payment after the cancellation, review the record. The job seeker has re-claimed and:
  • claim has not been finalised, see Item 10
  • claim is granted but job seeker has not been paid, see Item 11
  • claim is granted and job seeker has been paid, see Item 12

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated if:

• it is established the cancellation is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been submitted and not yet assessed

Where payment is to be restored as the cancellation 'Customer failed to re-engage' (CDR) was incorrect and the job seeker's claim has not been determined, encourage the job seeker to withdraw their claim online:

• tell the job seeker:
  • by withdrawing their claim their payment can be restored immediately
  • they cannot apply for a formal review if they withdraw their claim as the claim is taken as never to have been made
• if the job seeker prefers, code the claim withdrawal for them
• if the job seeker refuses to withdraw their claim:
  • reject the claim 'Customer receiving precluding payment (CPP)', then
  • in a separate transaction, restore the JobSeeker Payment from the date paid to plus 1, and
  • process any outstanding reports to generate payment of arrears, where appropriate
• record details of the decision and the conversation with the job seeker in a DOC

For more details about withdrawing a claim see, Withdrawal of claims.

See Item 13.

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated where:

• it has been established the CAN CDR is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been finalised and the job seeker has not yet been paid

Where this occurs, the newly granted jobseeker claim will need to be rejected.

In Process Direct (preferred option), go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen:

• Select or key the type of benefit in the Benefit Type Code field
• Select or key 'CAN' in the Benefit Action field
• Select or key 'OTH'
• Select or key the date equal to the 'grant date of most recent payment' in the Date of Effect field
• Hey 'CDR WORKAROUND' in the Notes field
• Complete Receipt date, Channel and Service Reason fields
• Finalise the activity - make sure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen

Note: as the job seeker has not yet been paid, the benefit status will change from CAN to REJ automatically upon finalisation.

To restore payment after the new claim (NCL) has been rejected, see Item 13.

Job seekers are eligible to have their payments reinstated where:

• it has been established the CAN CDR is incorrect, and
• a new claim has been finalised and the job seeker has been paid

Where this occurs, the newly granted jobseeker claim will need to be rejected.

In Process Direct (preferred option), go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen:

• Select or key the type of benefit in the Benefit Type field
• Select or key 'CAN' in the Benefit Action field
• Select or key 'OTH' in the Reason field
• Select or key the date equal to the 'grant date of most recent payment' in the Date of Effect field
• Key 'CDR WORKAROUND' in the Notes field
• Complete Receipt date, Channel and Service Reason fields
• Finalise the activity - make sure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen

A debt shell will be created for this period however, when the CDR is overridden, this should offset and the benefit status will read as 'REJ' automatically.

To restore payment after the new claim (NCL) has been rejected, see Item 13.

In Process Direct, go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen:

• Key the following:
  • as applicable in the Svc Rsn field
  • 'CAN' in the Action field
  • 'OTH' in the Reason field
  • 'date of SUS/TCF' in the Effect Date field
  • 'CDR WORKAROUND' in the Notes field
• Complete Receipt date, Channel and Service Reason fields
• Finalise the activity - make sure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen

Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen:

• Key the following:
  • as applicable in the Svc Rsn field
  • 'RES' in the Action field
  • leave the Reason field blank
  • the same date used in the above 'cancel other (OTH)' part of this item in the Effect Date field
  • 'CDR WORKAROUND' in the Notes field
• Complete Receipt date, Channel and Service Reason
• Finalise the activity - make sure all letters are inhibited via the Actions (ASC) screen
• Notify the job seeker of the decision and appeal rights
• Document the record using the Restore (Payment Type) DOV Fast Note

Note: if a limiting date error is returned when attempting to restore payment, escalate via ROXY and hold the started activity.

Other considerations

• Job seekers cannot report using self-service when it is more than 27 days after their oldest outstanding reporting date. A staff member may be required to complete the outstanding reports for the job seeker. See Reporting employment income online for more information
• A Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity may be generated after the restoration of payment, if this occurs cancel the activity
• As the payment has been cancelled, the job seeker registration may no longer be active. For information on re-registration with Workforce Australia, see Selection or allocation of a Workforce Australia employment services provider