Volunteers (Non-activity Tested)
Guidelines
V 2.2
Disclaimer
This document is not a stand-alone document and does not contain the entirety of Job Services Australia
Providers' obligations. It should be read in conjunction with the Employment Services Deed 2012-2015 and any
relevant guidelines or reference material issued by the Department of Employment under or in connection with
the Employment Services Deed 2012-2015.
Table of Contents
Summary
Servicing and Engaging Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) Job Seekers
Acceptable Appointment types
Acceptable Appointment results
Appointments and Activities for job seekers in the Work Experience Phase (including the
Compulsory Activity Phase)
Entering Activities in ESS
Caseload report
Transfers
Suspensions
Returning within 13 weeks of Exit
Returning more than 13 weeks of Exit
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Volunteers (Non-activity Tested) Guidelines
Document Change History
Version
Start Date
Effective Date
End Date
Change & Location
Removal of references to Community Development
and Employment Projects (CDEP) Page 4
2.2
11 Sep 14
11 Sep 14
2.1
1 Jul 14
1 Jul 14
10 Sep 14
Policy: Information regarding DSP Under 35 years
Compulsory Requirements 2014-15 Budget measure
2.0
1 Jul 14
1 Jul 14
1 Jul 14
Policy: Information regarding limit of one period of
participation in JSA for Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) job seekers (pages 3-4, 7-9).
1.1
27 Mar 14
27 Mar 14
30 Jun 14
Noticeboard messages updated and addition of
Caseload Report information (page 7).
1.0
1 Jan 14
1 Jan 14
27 Mar 14
Original version of document
Removal of references to Connections Interviews
pages 5-6
Summary
These Guidelines outline Job Services Australia (JSA) providers’ responsibilities and required actions
when delivering services to Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers.
As per the requirements for all Fully Eligible Participants in JSA, JSA providers must provide Volunteer
(Non-activity Tested) job seekers with the minimum level of servicing as required under the
Employment Services Deed 2012-2015 (the Deed).
Automatic Exit Process
Any Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) not actively engaged will be automatically Exited from JSA.
This automatic Exit will occur if a Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) has failed to:
 attend an Appointment with the Provider within any 13 week Service Fee period; or
 participate in an activity between 0 to 13 weeks or 52 to 65 weeks since commencement in
the Work Experience Phase.
Each 13 week period described above aligns with a job seeker’s Service Fee period. Each Service Fee
period consists of 91 Period of Service days (hereon referred to as days). Where a job seeker does not
attend an appointment, or where required an activity, for the first 90 days of this period they will be
automatically Exited by the Department’s IT System’s on the 91st day.
If a job seeker is Exited via this process and they still wish to be serviced, they can reengage at any
time provided they still meet eligibility requirements.
Please note that this Exit process does not circumvent Clause 48.7A of the Deed, which stipulates that
where a Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) fails to participate in an activity or attend an Appointment
with the JSA provider, the JSA provider must attempt to contact the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested).
If after making contact, the job seeker advises they no longer wish to participate, the provider must
perform a Provider Exit. Similarly, if the provider is unable to contact the job seeker, the JSA provider
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should also perform a Provider Exit. Refer to the Exit Guidelines and supporting documentation for
further information regarding this requirement.
If a Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker is Exited (via any current Exit process including the
above automatic Exit process due to disengagement, a Provider Exit, or any other Effective Exit
reason) and they still want to participate in JSA, they can reengage provided they return within
13 consecutive weeks of Exit and still meet eligibility requirements.
Exemptions from the Exit Process
A Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker must have this status for the entire Service Fee period to
be subject to this Exit process.
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) Pre-release Prisoners are exempt from this Exit process.
Note: Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients under the age of 35 appear in the Department’s IT
Systems as Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers. However, if a DSP recipient has the Special
Placement Flag ‘DSPB - DSP Under 35 years with Compulsory Requirements’ on their record, they have
compulsory requirements and should be actively engaged so that they do not exit via this process. If a
DSP recipient with compulsory requirements is exited due to disengagement, the Provider must
attempt to reengage them in service as soon as possible. Refer to the Disability Support Pension
Recipients under 35 years in JSA Guidelines for further information.
Limit of one period of participation in JSA
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers, who volunteer in JSA from 1 July 2014, will be limited to
one period of participation in JSA. That is, if they Exit JSA and decide to return more than
13 consecutive weeks after the date of their Exit, they will not be able to recommence in JSA unless
their circumstances change e.g. they move to an activity-tested income support payment, they
become subject to activity-test requirements, or they were prevented from continuing their
participation due to circumstances beyond their control, such as illness or caring responsibilities.
This limit of one period of participation in JSA will only affect Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job
seekers who start a new period of registration in JSA on or after 1 July 2014. Those who commenced
in JSA before this date will not be affected unless they Exit and return after more than 13 consecutive
weeks to commence a new period of registration.
Exemptions from the participation limit
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) Vulnerable Youth and Pre-Release Prisoners are exempt from this
participation limit.
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers who Exit JSA and commence in Disability Employment
Services or the Remote Jobs and Communities Programme will not be affected and will be able to
participate in JSA in the future (provided they meet eligibility requirements).
Employment Services Deed Clauses:
Clause 48.7, 48.7A & 48.7B – Exits
Clause 51– Contact Services
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Reference documents relevant to these Guidelines:
Volunteers (Non-activity Tested) Supporting Document
Contacts Guidelines
Exits Guidelines
Period of Service Guidelines
Referral and Commencement Guidelines
Getting a Job Seeker Commenced in the Work Experience Phase Guidelines
Compulsory Activity Phase (CAP) Guidelines
Explanatory Notes:
1.
All terms with initial capitalisation have the same meaning as in the Employment Services Deed
2012-2015.
2.
In this document, ‘must’ means that compliance is mandatory and ‘should’ means that compliance
represents best practice.
Servicing and Engaging Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) Job Seekers
Who is Responsible:
1. JSA provider
JSA providers must deliver services
to all Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) job seekers
What is Required:
JSA providers must provide Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers
with the minimum level of servicing as required under the
Employment Services Deed 2012-2015 (the Deed).
Employment Services Deed 2012 –
2015 Clause Reference:
 Clause 36
 Clause 51.1
2. JSA provider
JSA providers must ensure
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job
seekers attend at least one
Appointment in each Service Fee
period otherwise they will be
automatically Exited.
Employment Services Deed 20122015 Clause References:
 Clause 48.7
 Clause 51.1
All Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers must attend at least one
Appointment in the first 90 days of each Service Fee period, otherwise
they will be automatically Exited from JSA on the 91st day of this period.
Acceptable Appointment types
The following Appointment types are counted in relation to a Volunteer
(Non-activity Tested) job seeker’s engagement with a JSA provider. These
also align with Appointment types that count towards a JSA provider
meeting their minimum Contacts requirement:
 JSA Initial Interview
 JSA Contact
 JSA Re-engagement
 JSA Skills Assessment
 JSA Wrap Around Services.
The Appointment types ‘In-House Servicing’ and ‘JSA Activity’ are not
recognised for this purpose.
The job seeker’s status must be Commenced or Pending (not Suspended)
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Who is Responsible:
What is Required:
for the Appointment to be recognised by the Department’s IT Systems to
prevent an Exit via this process.
Acceptable Appointment results
Only Appointments with a result of ‘ATT – Attended’ are acceptable
‘Did Not Attend Valid’ and ‘Did Not Attend Invalid’ results are examples
of other result types that are not acceptable.
Please note that the provider is still contractually required to delivery
minimum monthly contacts to these job seekers.
3. JSA provider
Appointments and Activities for job seekers in the Work Experience
Phase (including the Compulsory Activity Phase)
JSA providers must ensure
In addition to attending at least one Appointment in the first 90 days of
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job each Service Fee period, Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers in
seekers in the Work Experience
the Work Experience Phase (including the Compulsory Activity Phase)
Phase, attend at least one
must also participate in a Work Experience Activity within the first
Appointment each Service Fee
90 days of the following 13 week Service Fee periods:
period, and be placed in a Work
 0 to 13 weeks and 52 - 65 weeks since commencement in the
Experience Activity (in the relevant
Work Experience Phase.
Service Fee periods) otherwise
they will be automatically Exited.
If the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker fails to attend at least
one Appointment and participate in a Work Experience Activity in either
Employment Services Deed 2012of these periods they will be automatically Exited from JSA.
2015 Clause References:
 Clause 48.7
Note, it is expected that between 52 - 65 weeks since commencement in
the Work Experience Phase the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker
will be participating in the Compulsory Activity Phase. However, the job
seeker may be Exited regardless of when they commenced in the
Compulsory Activity Phase.
In addition to the conditions provided above, Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) job seekers who commenced in the Work Experience Phase
(including the Compulsory Activity Phase) prior to 1 January 2014 must
also participate in a Work Experience Activity within the first 90 calendar
days from 1 January 2014, otherwise they will be automatically Exited
from JSA.
Entering Activities in ESS
The JSA provider must enter the relevant details of the Work Experience
Activity in the ‘Activity Placements’ screen of ESS. The activity placement
status must be ‘Placement Confirmed’ in order to prevent an Exit via this
process in the Service Fee period.
The job seeker’s status must be Commenced or Pending (not Suspended)
for the Work Experience Activity to be recognised by the Department’s IT
Systems to prevent an Exit via this process.
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Who is Responsible:
What is Required:
The entire period for which the activity placement runs is recognised for
the purposes of this process, not only the activity start date.
 End of Process – job seeker is engaged
4. Department of Employment
and JSA provider
JSA provider receives a
Noticeboard message that the job
seeker is due to be Exited.
Employment Services Deed 20122015 Clause References:
 Clause 48.7A, 48.7B
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers may cease participating and
may routinely fail to attend Appointments or activities with their JSA
provider.
To ensure Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers are provided the
opportunity to engage prior to being Exited, JSA providers are expected
to attempt to contact the job seeker to advise them prior to the end of
the Service Fee period that if they do not attend an Appointment (and
engage in activities if they are in WEPh/CAP) they will be Exited.
Note: For Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers who commenced
in JSA on or after 1 July 2014, JSA providers should ensure that the job
seeker is aware that if they are Exited, and do not return to service within
13 consecutive weeks, they will not be able to recommence in JSA unless
their circumstances change.
To assist JSA providers to identify disengaged Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) job seekers on their caseload, a Noticeboard message will be
displayed up to 14 days prior to the job seeker being scheduled to Exit.
The following Noticeboard messages will appear:
 Stream 1-4: ‘JSA Stream non-participating vol due to be exited’
 Work Experience Phase (including the Compulsory Activity
Phase): ‘WEPh/CAP non-participating vol due to be exited’.
Noticeboard messages will be displayed under ‘Effective Exits’ and will
last for up to 14 days until the job seeker attends an Appointment,
participates in a Work Experience Activity if required, is transferred, is
suspended, or is Exited.
Caseload report
JSA providers can also identify the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job
seekers on their caseload that are due to be Exited via the ‘Volunteer Exit
Due Date’ column in the Caseload report (JSC01 – Job Seeker Caseload).
This report is available on the Employment Services Reporting website, at
https://reports.deewr.gov.au/sites/ESR/pages/ReportsList.aspx.
Note: All Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers on a provider’s
caseload can be identified by the ‘RQA99’ code in the ‘Participation
Requirement Category Code’ column of this report.
Transfers
Where a disengaged Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) transfers to a new
JSA provider, the gaining provider will receive the same Noticeboard
message if the job seeker is within 14 days of a potential Exit. This
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Who is Responsible:
What is Required:
Noticeboard message will have an expiry time of 14 days or less
depending on how long the job seeker has left until they are scheduled to
Exit.
Suspensions
There may be instances where a disengaged Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) is suspended during the 14 day Noticeboard message window.
When the suspension is lifted, this Noticeboard message will be
redisplayed (if the job seeker has not had an appointment or, where
required, participated in an activity) and will have an expiry time of
14 days, regardless of how many days remain before the job seeker is
scheduled to Exit. The JSA provider should check the job seeker’s Period
of Service to determine exactly when they are scheduled for Exit.
To prevent an Exit, the provider should contact the job seeker to arrange
an Appointment (where required, commence them in a Work Experience
Activity) prior to the end of the first 90 days in that Service Fee period.
5. Department of Employment
The Volunteer (Non-activity
Tested) job seeker has not
engaged with their provider. The
job seeker is Effectively Exited.
If the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker does not engage with
their JSA provider in the first 90 days of the Service Fee period, they will
be automatically Exited from JSA on the 91st day of this period with the
following Exit reason:
 “NPJ - JSA Non-participating volunteer job seeker”.
 End of Process – job seeker is Exited
Employment Services Deed 20122015 Clause Reference:
 Clause 48.7
6. JSA Provider
A Volunteer (Non-activity Tested)
job seeker Exited through this
process wants to reengage with
services.
Employment Services Deed 20122015 Clause Reference:
 Clause 48.7
Returning within 13 weeks of Exit
An Exited Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker may choose to
reengage with JSA within 13 consecutive weeks of Exit.
Provided the job seeker still meets eligibility requirements, the provider
will be able to recommence the job seeker once they have attended an
appointment, and where applicable, commenced in a Work Experience
Activity if they were Exited at the end of either of the following 13 week
Service Fee periods:
 0 to 13 weeks or 52 - 65 weeks since commencement in the
Work Experience Phase.
Please refer to the Volunteers (Non-activity Tested) Supporting Document
for further information on how to re-commence these job seekers.
Returning more than 13 weeks of Exit
From 1 July 2014, Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers will be
limited to one period of participation in JSA. That is, if they Exit JSA and
decide to return more than 13 consecutive weeks after the date of their
Exit, they will not be able to recommence in JSA until their circumstances
change e.g. they move to an activity-tested income support payment,
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Who is Responsible:
What is Required:
they become subject to activity-test requirements, or they were
prevented from continuing their participation due to circumstances
beyond their control, such as illness or caring responsibilities.
Note: only registration periods commenced on or after 1 July 2014 are
considered in-scope in regard to the job seeker’s ‘one period of
participation’.
Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers who have used up their one
period of participation in JSA are also not able to re-register for
Stream 1 (Limited) assistance unless their circumstances change.
The job seeker may attempt to return to services by registering with the
Department of Human Services or directly with a JSA provider (if eligible
– refer to the Direct Registration Guidelines for further information).
If the Department of Human Services attempts to refer a Volunteer (Nonactivity Tested) job seeker who has already had their ‘one period of
participation’ they will not be able to do so.
If a provider attempts to Direct Register a Volunteer (Non-activity Tested)
job seeker that is not eligible for another period of participation in JSA,
the provider will receive the following error message when they attempt
to create a Stream Services referral for the job seeker:
 “Cannot refer, job seeker has already volunteered for Stream
Services”.
If a provider believes that the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker
from prevented from continuing their previous JSA participation due to
circumstances beyond their control, such as illness or caring
responsibilities, and the Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seeker
should be allowed to recommence in services, they can contact their
Account/Contract Manager. Decisions to allow an additional period of
participation for Volunteer (Non-activity Tested) job seekers will be made
on a case-by-case basis.
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