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Where a job seeker fails to meet their activity test or participation requirements and does not have a reasonable excuse or, where the failure relates to attendance at an appointment or activity, the job seeker does not give prior notice of a reasonable excuse when they were able to do so, a failure may be applied. Job seekers can incur the following failures:
All of the above failures, except for a connection failure, can result in a financial penalty. Although a connection failure does not result in a financial penalty, it contributes to the count of the job seeker's failures for the purpose of determining whether or not they have been persistently non compliant.
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Failure Type |
Conduct |
Consequence |
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NSNP Failure |
Fail to participate in a compulsory activity required by an EPP Fail to comply with a serious failure requirement (Compliance Activity). Fail to behave appropriately while participating in an activity. Fail to attend a job interview. Behave in a manner during a job interview that results in the job seeker not receiving a job offer. |
Loss of one-tenth of the job seeker's fortnightly participation payment. |
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Connection Failure |
Fail to attend an appointment, Fail to enter into an EPP, or Fail to meet job search requirements. |
Reconnection Requirement. Three connection and/or reconnection failures can result in serious failure if, following a CCA, the job seeker is found to have been persistently no-compliant. |
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Reconnection Failure |
Fail to meet reconnection requirement. |
Loss of one-fourteenth of the job seeker's fortnightly participation payment per day until the job seeker meets a further reconnection requirement. |
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Serious Failure |
Refusing or failing to accept an offer of suitable employment. Persistent non-compliance (as determined following a CCA). |
No payment for 8 weeks. |
Where a job seeker fails to attend an appointment or disengages from an activity required by their EPP, the failure is reported to Centrelink by their provider, their participation payment becomes immediately non-payable, before any consideration of whether or not the job seeker had a reasonable excuse and whether or not a connection, reconnection or no show no pay failure has occurred.
In these circumstances, payment is suspended but is restored with back payment once the job seeker agrees to attend another appointment. However, a connection, reconnection or no show no pay penalty may also be applied if the job seeker is found not to have had a reasonable excuse (or not to have given prior notice of a reasonable excuse) for not attending their appointment or activity.
When a job seeker's payment is suspended pending agreement to attend a further appointment, attendance at that further appointment is a reconnection requirement and failure to attend without a reasonable excuse results in a reconnection penalty.
Exception: If a job seeker has a current Vulnerability Indicator on their Centrelink computer record, their payment will not be suspended following an initial failure to attend an appointment or activity. They will, however, be given a reconnection requirement.
A job seeker can also incur an unemployment non-payment period if they are unemployed voluntarily or dismissed because of misconduct at work. Unemployment non-payment periods are preclusion periods not penalties, because the conduct generally occurs before the job seeker claims payment and becomes subject to activity test or participation requirements.
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Last reviewed: 1 July 2011
