Income support payments

What are income support payments?

An income support payment is a regular payment that helps you with living costs.

The following payments are income support payments:

• Age Pension
• Austudy
• Carer Payment
• Disability Support Pension
• JobSeeker Payment
• Parenting Payment
• Special Benefit.

The following allowances are income support payments:

• Farm Household Allowance
• Youth Allowance.

These payments are income support payments from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs:

• Age Pension
• Income Support Supplement
• Service Pension
• Veteran Payment.

What are mutual obligation activities? 

You may have tasks or agreed activities to complete if you get an income support payment.

The activities are usually designed to help you find a job, and you must complete them to get your payment.  

Mutual obligations are set out in your Job Plan, which you may have agreed to with your job seeker provider, or accepted via your MyGov account.

If you have mutual obligation requirements, the obligations will relate to a Workforce Australia Services provider or Workforce Australia online services.

What is Workforce Australia?

Workforce Australia is the employment service delivered by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. It replaced JobActive services on 4 July 2022. Centrelink recipients that obtain income support with mutual obligation requirements are connected with a Workforce Australia Services provider or participate in Workforce Australia online services.

What obligations must I meet as a jobseeker?

Some of your Workforce Australia mutual obligations will have points targets. A points reporting period lasts for one month and the points target each month is 100 points.

Points are earnt each month by doing tasks and activities, such as:

• applying for jobs
• going to interviews
• doing paid work
• participating in other activities such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation or counselling.

Some of the other obligations a job seeker might need to complete are:

• attending appointments
• follow up on job referrals
• accept suitable job offers
• accurately report completion of tasks/activities.

Can my mutual obligations be adjusted or reduced? 

Yes. If your circumstances change, your obligations can be adjusted, for example, they can reduce your points target or your job search requirement. Changes to circumstances can include:

• access to transport
•  the costs of meeting obligations.

If you’re unable to meet your requirements, you’ll need to either:

• let your employment services provider know, if you have one
• call the Digital Services Contact Centre if you’re in Workforce Australia Online
• call Services Australia on your regular payment line.

In some circumstances you can be temporarily exempt from your mutual obligations. You may be able to ask for a temporary exemption if there is:

• illness or injury and you have an approved medical certificate
• death of an immediate family member
• family and domestic violence
• short-term care duties
• a disaster at home.

You need to contact Services Australia for an exemption.

Sometimes your mutual obligation requirements may be paused. This can happen because of events like natural disasters. You can check the latest advice on locations with paused obligations, and what you need to do if you’re affected on Pause of requirements on the Services Australia website page or Pause of obligations on the Workforce Australia website.

What happens if I miss an activity or appointment?

It is important to re-engage with your requirements where you have missed an activity. If you re-engage within 2 business days, your payment will not be suspended.

You may be asked to do a ‘re-engagement’ activity, such as applying for jobs. If you fail to comply with a reconnection within 4 weeks after you are notified, your payment will be cancelled.

If you miss an activity, you should provide a valid reason as soon as possible. Your payment could be suspended, penalised or cancelled and you should get legal advice as soon as possible. 

Can I seek a review of a payment penalty or cancellation?

You can seek a review of a payment penalty or cancellation.

If you disagree with a demerit, you need to talk to your provider. If you don’t agree with your provider, you can call the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations National Customer Service Line. If you’re with Workforce Australia Online, call the Digital Services Contact Centre.

If you don’t agree with a decision that has resulted in a financial penalty or payment cancellation, you can ask Services Australia to review the decision. If this happens, the penalty will stay in place until the review is finished. If the decision is changed, you may get back pay.

A review can be requested:

• by calling Services Australia
• in writing by completing and returning the Explanation or formal review of a decision form (SS351) to Services Australia
• in person at a Services Australia office.

You will need to explain:

• what the decision is that you want reviewed, for example, ‘the decision to cancel my payment because I did not meet the mutual obligation requirement’
• the date that decision was made, and
• why the decision should be made differently i.e. why your payment should not be suspended/cancelled.

To receive the full amount of back pay the review should  be requested within 13 weeks of the decision date.

The review is done by an Authorised Review Officer.

For more information see Reviews and appeals of a Centrelink decision on the Services Australia website.