Comprehensive Compliance Assessments and
Compliance Activities Guideline
Document change history
Version
Start date
Effective
date
1.0
01 07 15
01 07 15
End date
Change and location
Original version of document
Explanatory Note
All capitalised terms have the same meaning as in the jobactive Deed 2015–2020. In this document,
‘must’ means that compliance is mandatory and ‘should’ means that compliance represents best
practice and that compliance is discretionary.
The term ‘job seeker’ in this Guideline means any Fully Eligible Participant (Mutual Obligation).
Disclaimer
This Guideline is not a stand-alone document and does not contain the entirety of Employment
Services Providers’ obligations.
It must be read in conjunction with the Deed and any relevant Guidelines or reference material
issued by Department of Employment under or in connection with the Deed.
Summary
This Guideline covers the following topics relating to job seekers requirements:
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Comprehensive Compliance Assessments (CCA)—a holistic, specialist assessment conducted
by the Department of Human Services (DHS)
Serious Failure Penalty—which may be incurred when a job seeker fails to accept or
commence a suitable job or as the result of DHS determining that the job seeker is
persistently non-compliant following a CCA investigation
Compliance Activities—activities that an Employment Provider (Provider) must immediately
arrange for a job seeker to undertake instead of serving a Serious Failure Penalty
(eight weeks without any income support).
Policy Intent
Comprehensive Compliance Assessments
The purpose of a CCA is to ensure a holistic assessment occurs when a job seeker has difficulty
meeting their Mutual Obligation Requirements. The assessment also needs to determine if the
pattern of non-compliance is deliberate and wilful. The findings of the CCA are designed to inform
the Provider’s future decisions about the job seeker's requirements, including any intervention
recommendations to assist the job seeker to meet their requirements.
jobactive Comprehensive Assessments and Compliance Activities Guideline Effective Date: 1 July 2015
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Serious Failures
A Serious Failure Penalty provides a strong, immediate incentive to job seekers who fail to accept or
commence a suitable job or who are assessed as being deliberately and wilfully non-compliant. As
these actions are the most serious forms of non-compliance, they need to have the most serious
consequences for the job seeker. This is both to help the job seeker to modify their behaviour and to
maintain the integrity of the social security system for the Australian tax-paying public.
Compliance Activity
Where a Serious Failure Penalty is applied, job seekers can choose to waive this by agreeing to
participate in a Compliance Activity for the eight weeks of the penalty period. The purpose of the
Compliance Activity is to encourage the job seeker to continue to engage with the services designed
to help them find employment, while still ensuring there is a proportionate consequence to serious
forms of non-compliance. Compliance Activities involve intensive participation that continues to
support job readiness and skills development and will potentially promote a change in the
non-compliant behaviour of the job seeker.
Relevant Deed clause/s
The relevant clauses in the jobactive Deed 2015–2020 (the Deed) include:
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
Clause 117—Comprehensive Compliance Assessment
Clause 118—Compliance Activities.
Relevant references
Reference documents relevant to this Guideline include:
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Learning Centre website
Mutual Obligation Requirements (including Annual Activity Requirements) Guideline
Job Plans Guideline
Job Seeker Compliance Framework Guideline
Social Security Act 1991
Social Security (Administration) Act 1999
Guide to Social Security Law
Employment and Community Services Network (ECSN) —Reports—Compliance.
Comprehensive Compliance Assessments
Process
Details
What is a CCA?
CCA investigations aim to determine whether a job seeker is being intentionally
non-compliant, the job seeker is genuinely trying to meet their Mutual Obligation
Requirements or other factors may have had an impact on the job seeker’s ability to
participate. If appropriate, the job seeker may be referred to additional service
options.
When do job
seekers have a
CCA?
A CCA will be automatically triggered when a job seeker has incurred either three
applied failures for non-attendance at Appointments, not entering into a Job Plan or
unsatisfactory Job Search or three applied No Show No Pay Failures in the last six
months or since the last CCA was undertaken for the job seeker.
A manual CCA can also be requested by Providers or DHS at any time if it is believed
that an unknown aspect of the job seeker’s circumstances may be contributing to
their non-compliance. Providers should include as much additional information as
possible when completing the request. It must be submitted on the same Business
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Day that it was created.
After submitting a CCA request, Providers should continue to service the job seeker
as normal. While a CCA process is being undertaken, Providers will not be able to
request a further manual CCA or report any other non-compliance in relation to the
same job seeker for investigation by DHS.
What is DHS’s role
in this process?
If the CCA was manually requested by a Provider, DHS will review the request. If
insufficient evidence is provided or the CCA has been requested for inappropriate
reasons, DHS will reject it. A CCA may also be returned to the Provider for review.
CCA investigation
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The DHS specialist will gather evidence from the Department of
Employment and the DHS IT systems and from third parties to determine
why the job seeker appears to have a pattern of non-compliance
The specialist will interview the job seeker to assess the impact of personal,
family or other issues and how these may have affected the job seeker’s
ability to participate. Any personal issues identified during the conversation
will be considered by the specialist when recommending appropriate
intervention strategies. During a CCA, Providers may be contacted by the
specialist to provide further information in relation to the job seeker.
CCA report and outcome
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The specialist will complete a CCA report containing relevant information
identified in the assessment. This may include reasons for non-compliance,
personal issues, suitability of the job seeker’s requirements and
recommended interventions. DHS will then finalise the CCA and apply a
Serious Failure (where they have determine the job seeker has been
deliberately and wilfully non-compliant) or the job seeker will be found to
be not deliberately and wilfully non-compliant. In the latter case, the CCA is
finalised without penalty to the job seeker.
If a Serious Failure has been applied and the job seeker has agreed to undertake a
Compliance Activity, DHS will book a re-engagement Appointment into an available
timeslot for the job seeker to attend with their Provider as quickly as possible.
Providers should review the CCA report and consider interventions to put in place
What does the
Provider need to do for the job seeker. Providers will see one of the following CCA outcomes in the
Department’s IT system:
after a CCA is
 finalised without penalty
completed?
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rejected
Serious Failure applied
o job seeker willing to undertake a Compliance Activity
o job seeker serving eight-week non-payment penalty or
o eight-week non-payment penalty waived due to financial hardship or
limited capacity to undertake serious failure requirement.
Where the CCA is ‘finalised without penalty’ or ‘rejected’, Providers should book a
normal contact Appointment for the job seeker and issue formal notification as per
usual arrangements.
Where the Serious Failure is applied and the job seeker has decided to undertake a
Compliance Activity, DHS will book a Compliance Activity Appointment in the
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Department’s IT system for the job seeker to attend with their Provider. At this
Appointment, Providers must immediately arrange for job seekers to start
participating in a Compliance Activity, update their Job Plan and monitor their
participation. No Appointment will be booked if the job seeker chooses to serve
their penalty. If the penalty is waived due to financial hardship, DHS will book a
re-engagement Appointment for the job seeker to attend with their Provider.
Interventions
Providers can view the CCA summary on the Department’s IT system, together with
any recommended interventions for action by Providers and DHS. Providers are able
to record outcomes against these interventions.
Serious Failures
Process
Details
What does the
Provider need to do
if they become
aware that one of
their job seekers
has not accepted or
commenced in a
suitable job?
Where the Provider believes that a job seeker has refused to accept or start in a
suitable job the Provider must attempt to contact the job seeker to assess if they
had a Reasonable Excuse for not meeting this requirement. Where Providers do not
believe there is a Reasonable Excuse, they must notify DHS by submitting a Serious
Failure Participation Report (PR) in the Department’s IT system.
Following the submission of a Serious Failure PR, DHS will apply or reject the Serious
Failure based on their determination of whether the job was suitable and whether
the job seeker had a Reasonable Excuse.
DHS will notify the job seeker if they have incurred a Serious Failure Penalty of eight
weeks without income support.
Compliance Activities
Process
Details
How and when
does the Provider
know the
job seeker has
elected to
undertake a
Compliance
Activity?
Providers will be notified that a job seeker has decided to undertake a Compliance
Activity when DHS books a re-engagement Appointment into an available timeslot in
the Department’s IT system for the job seeker to attend with their Provider. DHS will
include important information in the Appointment booking, including the required
duration of the Compliance Activity.
How many hours
does the job seeker
need to do in a
Compliance
Activity?
Depending on the job seeker’s Mutual Obligation Requirements, different
Compliance Activity requirements apply. Generally, job seekers will need to
participate in their activity every Business Day:
Booking this Appointment will conditionally waive the Serious Failure Penalty. When
the job seeker attends this Appointment, agrees to complete the activity as their
Compliance Activity as included by their Provider in their Job Plan, the Serious
Failure Penalty will be fully waived.
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job seekers with full-time Mutual Obligation Requirements must participate
for 200 hours over eight weeks at 25 hours per week
principal carer parents or job seekers with an assessed Partial Capacity to
Work must participate for 120 hours over eight weeks at 15 hours per week.
See Section 3.1.13.60—Compliance Activities in the Guide to Social Security Law for
more details.
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If a job seeker is undertaking a Compliance Activity (under the Job Seeker
Compliance Framework) either prior to entering into or during the Work for the Dole
Phase, they will still be required to undertake their full Annual Activity Requirement
as well as their Compliance Activity requirement. That is, the Compliance Activity
will not count toward meeting their Annual Activity Requirement. Where the job
seeker needs to undertake a Compliance Activity during the Work for the Dole
Phase, this means the job seeker will need to complete their remaining Annual
Activity Requirement hours in the Case Management Phase.
Note: A job seeker may also decide part-way through serving their Serious Failure
Penalty to undertake a Compliance Activity. In this instance, job seekers should be
referred to DHS to book an Appointment with their Provider and to conditionally
waive the remainder of the penalty. The job seeker must agree that the activity will
be included by their Provider in their Job Plan and must then participate in a
Compliance Activity for the remainder of the penalty period.
What does the
Provider need to do
when a job seeker
elects to do a
Compliance
Activity?
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Deed clause reference
 Clause 118.1
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What does the
Provider need to do
if the job seeker is
non-compliant?
Providers must negotiate and set up the Compliance Activity to be
immediately undertaken by the job seeker. Providers should consider the
required duration of the Compliance Activity and the job seeker’s
requirements. Compliance Activities should be accessible for the job seeker
and, wherever possible, beneficial to the job seeker’s employment
prospects
Providers must update the job seeker’s Job Plan to include the Compliance
Activity that the job seeker will immediately commence and, on agreement
by the job seeker, record this by having them sign the Job Plan or agree to it
online
Providers must formally notify the job seeker of the specific details of their
participation in a Compliance Activity and that they are required to attend
Formal notification such as a letter with details of activity participation must
include the location, dates and times of their Compliance Activity
Providers must actively monitor the job seeker’s participation in the
Compliance Activity
When the Compliance Activity is nearing completion, Providers should book
an Appointment with the job seeker as soon as possible to remove the
Compliance Activity from the job seeker’s Job Plan and update the Job Plan
to reflect the job seeker’s ongoing requirements.
Non-compliance at a Compliance Activity Appointment
Where the job seeker does not attend their Compliance Activity Appointment,
Providers are not required to attempt to contact the job seeker but must update the
Department’s IT system to record the non-attendance by close of business on the
day of the missed Appointment.
Job seekers may make contact before this Appointment to advise of their inability to
attend at the specified time. Where the Provider accepts the job seeker’s reason,
they can verbally reschedule the Appointment to a later time on the same day
without having to reschedule the Appointment in the Department’s IT system. If the
Appointment needs to be rescheduled to another day, this must be done by DHS.
Where the job seeker attended the Appointment but did not agree to a Job Plan or
sign an updated Job Plan, Providers must record the job seeker’s non-compliance
with their Mutual Obligation Requirements in the Department’s IT system on the
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same day as the Compliance Activity Appointment. This will automatically prompt
DHS to investigate the alleged event.
Managing non-compliance in a Compliance Activity
Where the job seeker does not attend their Compliance Activity and the Provider
considers that the job seeker had a Reasonable Excuse for not attending, Providers
may use their discretion and allow the job seeker to make up missed time in the
activity. If the Provider does not consider that the job seeker has a Reasonable
Excuse and they want to use the job seeker compliance framework, Providers must
submit a No Show, No Pay PR for each day of non-attendance.
Where the job seeker does not behave appropriately during their Compliance
Activity and the Provider wants to report the incident to DHS, Providers must submit
a No Show, No Pay PR for the alleged event, which DHS will investigate.
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