“Compliance activities” are things people on “participation payments” must do in order to receive a Centrelink payment.

An “activity” takes up a large part of the day.

• Not doing an “activity” can result in a no show no pay failure or a serious failure.

A compliance activity could be:

• part-time work
• work experience
• training
• intensive job search

“Participation payments” are:

• Newstart allowance,
• Youth allowance (unless you are a full-time student or a new apprentice),
• Parenting payment, (if you are subject to participation requirements),
• Special Benefit (if you are a nominated visa holder).

To receive a payment with participation requirements, you must fulfil your “activity test”.

To fulfil your activity test, you must:

• demonstrate that you are actively looking for suitable paid work
• accept suitable work offers
• attend all job interviews
• agree to attend approved training courses or programs
• never leave a job, training course or program without a good reason
• enter into an Employment Pathway Plan if asked to do so.

You will have a different activity test if you are:

• 55 or over
• The principal carer of a dependent child.

• When you don’t do an activity or attend an appointment, Centrelink may impose a “failure”.
• There are different types of failures and they have different consequences.
  • Connection failure
  • Reconnection failure
  • No show no pay failure
  • Serious failure
• For more information about each failure type, see below.
• If you get a failure, make sure you understand what it is for.
• If you disagree, you can appeal.

The rules about participation and failures are very complex.

Get Centrelink and your Employment Services Provider, (ESP), to explain clearly what you have to do.

If you can’t get to an appointment or activity, tell Centrelink or your Employment Services provider before the appointment or activity.

If you have a “reasonable excuse”, you should not get a failure.

If you get a failure and you believe it was wrong, you can appeal.

• Getting several failures can lead to a “serious failure” and an 8-week non-payment period, so it is worth appealing.

If you have a “reasonable excuse”, Centrelink can’t give you a failure.

Centrelink must consider all your circumstances at the time the failure occurred.

These include:

• Whether you are living in safe, long-term and adequate housing
• Your literacy and language skills
• If you were sick
• If you have a disability
• If you have drug or alcohol dependence
• If you have unforseen family or caring responsibilities
• If you have experienced criminal violence
• If a close relative died
• If you were recently released from prison
• If you had work
• If you had a job interview
• If you didn’t have transport
• If you didn’t have child care
• If you didn’t know what you had to do (e.g. you didn’t receive a notice from Centrelink)

There are some circumstances under which you can be exempted from your participation requirements.

These exemptions are granted for up to 13 weeks at a time.

It may be possible to get a temporary exemption if you:

• are sick or injured
  • You will need to provide Centrelink with a medical certificate
• are experiencing a major personal disruption to your home
• have a major personal crisis
• are on jury duty
• are a refugee
• are homeless
• live in a remote area.

• You may get a connection failure if you:
  • Don’t go to an appointment, such as with Centrelink or your Employment Service Provider.
  • Don’t sign an Employment Pathway Plan
  • Don’t look for the required number of jobs
  • Don’t hand in a satisfactory Job Seeker Diary

• If you don’t do your “reconnection requirement”,  you may get a reconnection failure.
• If you get a reconnection failure, then you are in a “reconnection failure period”.

• You may get a no show no pay (NSNP) failure if you:
  • Don’t do a compulsory activity required by an Employment Pathway Plan
    • Examples of activities are training or Work for the Dole.
  • Go to the activity but start late or leave early.
  • Don’t do a serious failure requirement
  • Deliberately behave inappropriately while participating in an activity.
  • Don’t attend a job interview.
  • Attend the job interview, but deliberately act in a way that could lead to them not offering you a job.
  • If you have a “reasonable excuse” they cannot apply a NSNP.

• Consequence of a no show no pay failure:
  • You will lose one day’s pay each time a NSNP is imposed.
    • One day’s pay = 1/10 of your fortnightly payment.
  • You can still receive Family Tax Benefit and Rent Assistance.

• What you can do about a no show no pay failure:
  • If you disagree, you can appeal.

• You may get a serious failure if you:
  • Don’t accept a suitable job offer.
  • Persistently don’t do your participation requirements
• Centrelink must undertake a “Comprehensive Compliance Assessment” before giving a serious failure. 

• You can “work off” an 8 week non-payment period by doing a ”compliance activity” such as
  
  • Work for the dole
  • Part-time work
  • Intensive job search
• Centrelink can restart your payments as soon as you tell them you want to work off the penalty.
  
  • If you don’t then start your compliance activity, the 8 week non-payment period will restart.
• Centrelink may decide not to impose an 8-week non-payment period if: 
  • you cannot do a compliance activity, and
  • the 8 week non-payment period would cause “severe financial hardship

• You can appeal.
  • Centrelink must grant you "payment pending review" while they review the penalty.

• You can appeal.
• If you appeal an 8 week non-payment period, Centrelink must give you “payment pending review” while they review the penalty.
• If you appeal a no show no pay penalty or a reconnection penalty, you will not be able to get payment pending review. 
  • This is because you would have to meet your participation requirements to get Payment Pending Review and, once you have done this, your payment will resume anyway.
• Getting several failures can lead to a “serious failure” and an 8-week non-payment period, so it is worth appealing any failure you disagree with.
• "Persistent non-compliance" can result in a serious failure.

• It matters because the penalties for not doing an “activity” are different from the penalties for not going to an “appointment”.
• An “appointment” is a short meeting with Centrelink or your Job Services Australia provider.
  • Not going to an appointment can result in a connection failure.
• An activity takes up a large part of the day.
  • Not doing an activity can result in a no show no pay failure or a serious failure.
• Examples of activities are:
  • looking for suitable paid work
  • going to  job interview;
  • doing training courses to improve your chance of getting a job

• You can “work off” an 8 week non-payment period by doing a ”compliance activity” such as
  • Work for the dole
  • Part-time work
  • Intensive job search
• Centrelink can restart your payments as soon as you tell them you want to work off the penalty.
  • If you don’t then start your compliance activity, the 8 week non-payment period will restart.
• Centrelink may decide not to impose an 8-week non-payment period if: 
  • you cannot do a compliance activity, and
  • the 8 week non-payment period would cause “severe financial hardship
• You can appeal.
  • Centrelink must grant you “payment pending review” while they review the penalty.

• Your “Employment Pathway Plan” (EPP) outlines what you need to do in order to receive payment.
• If you don’t do the activities on your EPP, you could get a failure penalty.
• Your personal circumstances, abilities and goals should be considered when drawing up your EPP.

Factsheet: Activity Test and Participation Requirements

Factsheet: Appeals - how to appeal against a Centrelink decision

On this site: Disagree with Centrelink?

Contact your local Welfare Rights Centre