Employment Services Assessments (ESAt) 008-06120000

Item

Description

1

Temporary Reduced Work Capacity (TRWC)

A customer is assessed as having a TRWC if they have been assessed by an Assessor as being temporarily unable to work for at least 30 hours per week because of a medical condition. The Assessor will use information provided by the Treating Health Professional and gathered in the ESAt interview.

2

Partial Capacity to Work (PCW)

A PCW is decided based on permanent verified medical conditions. The customer is assessed as having a PCW if both 'baseline work capacity' and 'with intervention' work capacity are assessed to be less than 30 hours per week.

3

Participation

Customers with a PCW or a TRWC of 0-7 or 8-14 hours per week of 12 weeks or more in duration, must attend quarterly participation interviews with Services Australia to fully meet their requirements. This must occur, unless they are undertaking paid work or self-employment within their bandwidth, as this will also fully meet their requirements. If a customer fails to attend a compulsory quarterly interview appointment, their payment may be suspended.

Customers with an assessed TRWC of 0-7 or 8-14 hours per week of less than 12 weeks in duration will not have a quarterly interview requirement. Instead, these customers will fully meet their requirements by lodging their Reporting Statement and attending appointments with Services Australia if requested.

Customers with a PCW or TRWC of either 0-7 or 8-14 hours per week are still required to meet mutual obligation requirements:

• while these customers are always encouraged to participate with an Employment Services Provider, they cannot be penalised if they choose not to do so
• customers with a TRWC of 0-7 hours per week cannot be referred to Disability Employment Services (DES) but can be referred to Workforce Australia, and
• to fully meet their requirements through paid work instead of attending quarterly interviews, the hours of work must be within their bandwidth (for example, at least 8 hours per week, if they have a PCW of 8-14 hours per week)

A customer who lodges a medical certificate (seeking exemption from mutual obligation requirements) may be referred for an ESAt to assess their PCW or TRWC where there is not already a current and valid assessment of the customer's work capacity. The referral for an ESAt should not delay the decision about the temporary incapacity exemption. In all cases the Service Officer should make the decision about whether to grant an exemption based on available evidence, including the medical certificate completed by the customer's treating doctor.

4

Continuing Inability to Work (CITW)

CITW is used to assess eligibility for Disability Support Pension (DSP). A customer has a CITW if their impairment alone prevents them from undertaking both of the following:

• work for 15 or more hours per week where wages are at or above the relevant minimum wage, for at least 2 years
• educational, pre-vocational, vocational, or work related training (including on-the job training) is unlikely (because of the customer's impairment) to enable the customer to do any work for 15 or more hours per week where wages are at or above the relevant minimum wage, within 2 years independently of a program of support

An impairment rating of 20 points or more does not mean the customer will be unable to do any work of at least 15 hours per week in the next 2 years. It means the person's impairment may have a significant functional impact in many work situations but depending on the person's individual circumstances, coping mechanisms and reasonable adjustments, that person may still be able to do work.

5

Bandwidths

An Assessor will draw on information gathered in the interview to determine functional impact on customers' ability to work and justify their decisions in the report as to how the work capacity bandwidths have been reached ('baseline' and 'with intervention'):

• 0-7 hours per week
• 8-14 hours per week
• 15-22 hours per week
• 23-29 hours per week
• 30+ hours per week

6

Definition and sustainability of work

For the purposes of work capacity, 'work' is considered to be any work. It is not limited by the work the customer usually performs nor work available in the customer's area. It is expected that a person will be capable of reliably performing work on a sustainable basis. That, for a reasonable period of time without requiring excessive sick leave or work absences.

In this context, a reasonable period of time generally means 26 weeks and work means work in open, unsupported employment. Sick leave or absences of 1 month or more (in total) taken in any given 26 week period is considered excessive.

Item

Description

1

Recording and actioning recommended referrals

A referral recommendation is recorded if a customer has the capacity to work 8 or more hours in open employment.

For job seekers who are working or studying at their assessed capacity, a referral is still recommended and actioned. The Employment Services Provider will decide if the customer is meeting their mutual obligation requirements.

The Assessor's recommendation in relation to the type of Employment Services Provider referral is final. Assessors use their professional qualifications to determine how factors such as a customer's medical conditions, barriers to work, and support requirements affect their capacity to work. These factors inform the decision of which Employment Services Provider will best suit the customer.

2

Customers assessed as 'Unable to benefit'

Where there is medical evidence to suggest severe medical conditions and the ESAt is to be upgraded to a JCA a limited number of customers will be assessed as 'unable to benefit'. 'Unable to benefit' is when:

• the customer has a 'with intervention' work capacity of 0-7 hours per week, that is, cannot achieve a work capacity in open employment of 8+ hours per week within 2 years with intervention, and
• are not suitable for referral to Disability Employment Services (DES) with ongoing support

3

Volunteer in employment assistance

A volunteer has no participation requirements as their 'with intervention' work capacity is recorded as less than 15 hours per week, or they are receiving a payment with no mutual obligation requirements. Volunteers are offered the opportunity to be referred to an Employment Services Provider.

Where the customer:

• accepts the offer, an appointment with the Employment Services Provider is made, or
• declines the offer, the reason 'no referral was actioned' is recorded in the ESAt report

Note: if a customer is registered as Job Seeker Registration Only (JSRO) or a volunteer, a referral error 'Job seeker is ineligible' may appear. The customer will need to be inactivated and re-registered as a Fully Eligible Participant to allow a referral to be actioned.

4

Customers with temporary reduced work capacity

Customers with a partial capacity to work or temporary reduced work capacity of less than 15 hours a week, but more than 0-7 hours per week, are not required to look for work or participate in an activity or program of assistance for the duration of this reduced capacity.

They may volunteer to participate in a program of assistance and if they choose. If they decline the offer to volunteer this will be considered a deferred referral and be actioned by Services Australia at the end of the period of temporary reduced work capacity.

5

Customers with mutual obligation requirements

When referring a customer with mutual obligation requirements to an Employment Services Provider, the customer must be notified about the requirement to attend the appointment with the provider, and the possible consequences if they fail to attend the appointment without a reasonable excuse, including application of a participation failure.

The Employment Services Provider will take appropriate action if a customer with mutual obligation requirements fails to attend their appointment. This may include:

• deciding if the customer had a reasonable excuse for not complying
• raising a Contact Request if they are unable to contact the customer and decide that formal compliance action is not the best means to re-engage the customer
• if the customer had a reasonable excuse, the appointment may be rescheduled or the customer may be referred to Services Australia for re-scheduling
• lodging a Participation Report with Services Australia, who will reconnect the customer with the recommended Employment Services Provider

6

Employment Services Provider disputes

An Employment Services Provider may dispute a referral if the provider does not believe that the referral is correct, or that the work capacity and benchmark hours for the customer are correct.

Where an Employment Services Provider considers they are not the most appropriate service type to assist the customer and/or the work capacity may not be correct, they must:

• raise this matter with Assessment Services within 28 days of receiving the assessment report
• provide detailed reasons to support their position

7

Customer preferences

A referral recommendation should not be changed if the customer refuses to participate in the recommended program or wishes to be referred to another program. Customers who volunteer for employment assistance but refuse a referral to a specialist Employment Services Provider may be referred to Workforce Australia.

When a customer lives in a Department of Employment and Workplace Relations designated remote area, they are referred to a CDP provider.

Customers will generally not be given a choice of service type, however if there is more than one Employment Services Provider offering a single service type, the customer may choose their preferred provider, subject to appointments being available.

Item

Description

1

Referrals to Workforce Australia

The results of the Job Seeker Snapshot will determine if someone is placed in Workforce Australia Online or Workforce Australia Services.

The Snapshot will consider the level of disadvantage along with ability to engage and navigate the online system.

Workforce Australia Services are tailored to the individual and providers will work with the job seeker to negotiate an individually tailored pathway to employment (a Job Plan).

2

Disability employment assistance referrals

Disability Employment Services (DES) are specialist services designed for people with disabilities, illness, or injury.

Referrals for DES come from the ESAt or JCA report and assist the customer to return to or maintain employment.

With some exceptions, from 1 July 2021 DES eligibility is restricted to customers with an assessed current and future work capacity below 30 hours per week and in receipt of a social security payment. For more information, see Direct registration with a provider for disability employment assistance services.

3

Community Development Program (CDP) referrals

For eligible job seekers CDP replaces:

• Workforce Australia Employment Services
• Disability Employment Services (DES)
• Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), and
• the Indigenous Employment Program (IEP)

Item

Description

1

High

The customer is likely to have significant and ongoing difficulty complying with mutual obligation requirements due to cognitive or neurological impairment, psychiatric/psychological problems, severe drug or alcohol dependency or the treatment demands of a medical condition. The customer's degree of insight into their condition and episodic fluctuations would factor into this rating.

2

Moderate

The customer's capacity to comply is compromised by temporary or ongoing barriers, but they have some support and coping strategies. The customer's degree of insight and episodic fluctuations would factor into this rating.

3

Low

The customer is unlikely to have difficulties complying with mutual obligation requirements based on the barriers and/or medical conditions identified by the ESAt.

4

Vulnerability Indicators

Assist Services Australia to identify any vulnerability that may impact on the customer's ability to:

• comply with mutual obligation requirements
• place the customer at a higher risk of non-compliance