Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework

Written submissions on matters within the terms of reference for the Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework have closed.

The Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework reported to Parliament on 30 September 2010.

The report was generally positive about the existing arrangements. It acknowledged that the framework has the broad support of welfare organisations and employment services providers and made some recommendations around further improvements.

The Government has carefully considered the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review and is implementing a range of initiatives to further strengthen job seeker compliance.

The 2011-12 Budget provides $49.8 million over four years to implement a range of measures associated with the Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework including $11.2 million to improve the operation of Comprehensive Compliance Assessments, $14.2 million to fund joint interviews between employment services providers and Centrelink with job seekers who are having difficulty meeting their requirements, $22.5 million to improve communication between Centrelink and providers on compliance matters through a greater degree of information shared between the IT systems as well as simplification of training material and guidelines  and $1.9 million to align daily penalty amounts for short–term financial penalties.

These measures continue the Government’s focus on balancing the responsibilities for job seekers to demonstrate that they are looking for work or undertaking job preparation activities with providing opportunities and assistance which helps them improve their employment prospects.

The Government is also implementing other improvements to the job seeker compliance framework, such as regularly releasing clearer and more transparent data, conducting research on job seeker compliance, a review of a random sample of compliance cases and the re-estimation of the Job Seeker Classification Instrument.

In addition, the Government announced the review of remote participation and employment services ahead of the 2011-12 Budget.

A copy of the Independent Review of the Job Seeker Compliance Framework is available on the Independent Review Report page.

Background:
In July 2009 the Government introduced a new job seeker compliance framework to support the operation of Job Services Australia. The legislation which gave effect to this new framework required  the Government to establish an independent panel to review the impact of the new compliance arrangements after their first year of operation.

A panel was established.  Its members were Professor Julian Disney AO (Chair), Ms Anna Buduls and Mr Peter Grant. See Biographical information on the panel members.

Terms of reference for the review were prescribed in the Social Security (Administration) Act (1999). The review panel was required to provide a written report to the Minister for public release and tabling in each House of the Parliament by 30 September 2010.

The work of the review panel was funded by the Government and supported by some administrative assistance from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. In accordance with the legislation, however, the review operated independently of the Government and its agencies, making its own assessment of the effectiveness and impact of the new compliance framework.

• This website was set up at the request of the panel to provide publicly accessible information about the review. For administrative reasons, the website is attached to the website of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
  

Request for Submissions