3.2.9.80 Suitable Activity - Drought Force

Summary

Drought Force is a category of WFD and helps individual farms and farming communities that have been severely affected by drought. Drought Force activities can only be undertaken in areas that are covered by Australian Government drought assistance measures. These are areas declared by the Australian Government as Exceptional Circumstances (EC) or prima facie areas.

Drought Force aims to assist communities affected by drought by assisting farming properties with their workforce needs and by helping to keep the pool of farm labour from moving away from the community. Drought Force activities should be tailored to assist farms and communities mitigate against drought and support the priorities of the local community.

Eligibility criteria

To be required to do Drought Force, job seekers must:

• be receiving the full rate income support, and
• not be undertaking a suitable activity that already allows the job seeker to fully meet the activity test, and
• not be exempt from the activity test, and
• not have an illness, injury or disability that would be aggravated by the work conditions, and
• have the necessary skills and experience to perform the required tasks.

Failure to commence, complete or comply with the conditions of a Drought Force activity can result in payment being stopped (3.1.13).

Drought Force activities may only be undertaken by job seekers on a voluntary basis. Where a job seeker does not wish to undertake a Drought Force activity they should be placed into another suitable Work Experience Activity to fulfil their participation requirements.

Drought Force only participants

Drought Force only participants are job seekers who are over 21 and are not eligible for income support but who otherwise are eligible for Drought Force Only Services. This category of job seeker may include local unemployed seasonal workers, students and children of property owners or lease holders. These people can only participate in Drought Force providing they meet the Drought Force eligibility criteria.

Private land

While WFD must be hosted by not-for-profit organisations and cannot occur on private property unless DEEWR gives prior approval, Drought Force activities may be hosted on private property provided the activity meets all the other Drought Force criteria.

Drought Force 60 plus

Job seekers in receipt of an activity-tested income support payment, who choose to make a significant contribution to local farms affected by drought by participating in Drought Force for more than 60 hours each fortnight will need to register their interest to do so with Centrelink. Upon Centrelink recording the job seeker participation as a suitable activity these job seekers will not have to look for work and will be deemed to be fully meeting their activity test requirements in recognition of the substantial amount of work they are undertaking on Drought Force.

Supplement payment

Job seekers receiving income support who participate in Drought Force are eligible to receive a supplement of $20.80 per fortnight to assist with the additional costs of participation. The supplement is taxable, but is exempt from the income test.

The supplement is not paid on a pro-rata basis. The full payment is made for the fortnights in which the activity begins and ends, regardless of the actual number of participation hours completed in those fortnights. If a job seeker leaves a Drought Force project without good reason, the supplement will cease to be paid from the first payday after the job seeker ends participation on the activity.

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Last reviewed: 1 July 2009