3.8.14.50 Job Seeker Compliance for Training Supplement

Note: The training supplement was a time limited measure available to eligible recipients who commenced an approved course between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2011. The training supplement ceased to be available for new claimants commencing an approved course on or after 1 July 2011. The following information is for historical purposes only.

Summary

Recipients in receipt of the training supplement are generally subject to the job seeker compliance arrangements which commenced on 1 July 2009. That is, they can incur:

• connection and reconnection failures for not attending appointments without reasonable excuse,
• NSNP failures for not participating in activities without a reasonable excuse, and
• serious failures for persistent and deliberate non-compliance.

Job seeker compliance

The training supplement was a supplemental payment to NSA and PP (with participation requirements). Therefore, if a recipient failed to comply with a requirement in an EPP which had been established to meet the participation requirements for these payments, they will also have failed to meet the requirements for the training supplement. For a person to satisfy their activity test they must be making satisfactory progress towards completing their course.

Before taking compliance action for a recipient of the training supplement in relation to their study requirement, the following factors should be carefully considered:

• Did the person have a reasonable excuse for not participating in their study?
• Is study an appropriate activity for the person?
• Is it possible to obtain evidence about daily attendance?
• Is there a requirement in the EPP that the person must attend their study at specific times?
• Can the person meet their course requirements without necessarily attending on each day? (This question may be particularly relevant for study activities where there is no compulsory attendance requirement set by the institution),
• Can the person demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily in a course of study? For example, have required assignments been completed, is study workload being completed from home or through an alternate mechanism, such as distance education, can they discuss the course components to date, including specific contents of their courses?
• Has the person maintained their enrolment and satisfactory progress according to the educational institution?

Where a person does not have a good attendance record, but is still meeting their course requirements, compliance action may not be warranted. If the person is not meeting the course requirements and they have not been attending their course then a NSNP failure may be applicable for their non-attendance. Compliance action is only appropriate for non-attendance. A person should not be subject to compliance action if they are underperforming in their course but they have a good attendance record.

A NSNP failure can only be applied if the person's EPP included a requirement to attend their study. The EPP should set out clearly the hours and dates during which a job seeker is required to undertake an activity in order to support a failure determination. The delegate MUST be satisfied that the job seeker understood, or could reasonably have been expected to understand, their requirements. Before compliance action can be taken, it may therefore be necessary to update the person's EPP to include attendance requirements, together with options for verifying attendance.

A NSA recipient is expected to make satisfactory progress towards completing their course of study or training in order to satisfy their activity test (refer to 3.1.13). Failing to meet the requirements of an EPP may mean that the recipient ceases to be eligible for NSA and the training supplement, as a consequence. In circumstances in which a recipient is at risk of failing to make satisfactory progress, the recipient's EPP should be renegotiated.

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Last reviewed: 5 September 2011