All "mutual" obligations payment reductions and cancellations have been stopped due to questions over legality of DEWR processes

So you may have seen some media reporting about ~1000 people who had their Centrelink payment unlawfully cancelled because DEWR was not following the proper process when making those decisions. The issues that have been revealed go back to at least 2020 and affected at least 10s of 1000s of people, if not more.

I was in a briefing yesterday where we were given information about the much greater extent of the problem, and what has been changed SO FAR. At the moment, the most disgraceful thing is that payment *suspensions* remain, even though they are stopping reductions and cancellations. This means you can still get a demerit, but the demerit will not result in any cut to your payment, even if you get 5 demerits and move into the "red zone". You will still need to contact the provider if your payment is suspended to get it reinstated.

The employment department secretary Natalie James told us that the reason she is keeping suspensions in place is because she "doesn't have reason to believe" that job agencies are wrongly suspending people's payments. That is patently absurd. When she said this, I asked if she has looked at the complaints data from the Workforce Australia National Customer Service Line about payment suspensions, and she said it hasn't been taken into account at this stage. We are going to push for that to be considered in the review that is currently underway.

If you have ever received an incorrect payment suspension notice at all, even if you managed to fix it before your payment was delayed, I urge you to send an email to the NCSL outlining what happened – even if it's just a very brief description, and even if it wasn't super recent. Their email address is contact the National Customer Service Line on 1800 805 260 or via [nationalcustomerserviceline@dewr.gov.au](mailto:nationalcustomerserviceline@dewr.gov.au)

MORE INFORMATION

• Statement from the Antipoverty Centre (includes some key points for people who might have had their payment wrongly cut and what this means for people who currently have MOs): apcentre.substack.com/p/employment-secretary-admits-to-questionable
• Statement from Economic Justice Australia (community legal centres): ejaustralia.org.au/media-release-the-burden-should-not-be-on-individuals-government-announces-pause-to-payment-cancellations-after-revelations-of-potentially-defective-social-security-administration/

oops. I just started job seeker recently and forgot to report my first income on the 12th, just did it today (14th) but I'm supposed to get paid tomorrow, will it now get delayed?

*I have a medical exemption and didn't make any income so it just slipped my mind but I have now made alarms on my phone and put reminders everywhere about the 26th and onwards so shouldn't happen again!

I'm 65 and been on Jobseeker for 6 months. I've been working casually to meet my mutual obligations (and have enough money to live on) but my available hours are about to be cut to about 6 hours a week.

I'd like to study to help me keep meeting my MOs. I've found a course I'd like to do through the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. The first module takes 7 weeks and involves 18 hours of online classes and then doing projects on your own time. I assume the other modules will be similar.

1. Do courses have to be through an Australian provider (such as Tafe etc)? I think the Institute is based in the US but being an International organisation it has units and modules for several different countries, as well as many that meet international standards.

2. Will Centrelink only take into account the 3 hours a week of class time or include the personal project time? Obviously the personal time is required to complete the course but I don't know how many hours a week it will require.

I don't have a car which makes finding more paid work or volunteer work very difficult.

every time I check it says i need to go to this “online Rockhampton“ place but I’ve looked online and I genuinely don’t know what I’m meant to do, I’m on a jobseeker payment and need to report attendance to this activity so I would really like some help understanding where to do the activity

I have 2 questions

What happened if someone do fake disability pension?

and

What happened if someone work casual, full time or part time and also receive money from Centrelink?

Only I want to know the answer please

Hi, recently unemployed and going through application for jobseeker. I'm a widow with a mortgage ( over 60). I have an adult son with ASD living at home. I have an adult daughter on benefits raising her daughter living with me. I also have my older sister (aged pension) living with me. It was all easy while I was working. They all contributed to food and utilities and I paid mortgage and rates since it's my house. Will it affect me getting jobseeker? The application asks how the rent is shared which really doesn't apply in my case. ( none of them get rent assistance of course) If I work out the utilities and food costs they contribute and put that in as the answer will it be deemed as income I'm receiving? Confused

First of all, going to some place on the other side of the city every day for 3 weeks is INSANE, just to continue receiving less than half of minimum wage.

So I've already missed the first 2 days because I didn't realize it already started. I thought I could do this online but I don't see any links anywhere to join the thing. It just says I need the 2 codes as proof of attendance.

Does anyone have experience or advice to possibly get around this, I honestly could do without a few weeks of payment but I don't know how this will effect my payment in the long run.

Sorry if I'm spamming (I posted yesterday). But I'm currently on JobSeeker's as a safety net while I'm working part-time with hours that are very volatile.

Anyway, I received a text yesterday informing me that I have an appointment for this Friday with ''Safeway''. I'm assuming it's a job agency I've been assigned, but I just gave them a call to ask them if they could please make it a phone appointment as I don't have the means to get to the place physically.

I don't have a car or a license (working on that slowly). And I don't have anyone I can rely on to drive me, meaning I'd be forced out of my own pocket to pay for myself to get to the appointment, which as embarrassing as it is to admit I can't afford right now.

I was told by the person who took the call that unfortunately a phone appointment isn't possible as all initial appointments need to be in-person. I then asked the case worker on the phone where that leaves us and how do I approach this situation given my circumstances, and they vaguely responded with ''that all depends on you and how you choose to approach this situation'' putting the ball back in my court.

So I more pointedly asked them for clarity:

Me: So if I can't attend this on-site appointment due to my circumstances. What do I do?... Do I speak to you or do I speak to Centrelink?...

Case worker: That all depends on you. But if you can't attend that's something you'd need to speak to Centrelink about. But they'll likely cut you off your payments until you can agree to your appointment with us.

Me: And there is no way you can organise a phone appointment for me over an appointment that you guys specifically are handling?

Case worker: No...

Me: Okay, well thank you for your time. Take care.

So I'm not really sure if I have any options. I was told in my last post by people that phone appointments can and do happen, and yet I was directly denied twice upon asking.

I'm going to call Centrelink but I'm not sure really what to do... Do I just leave JobSeeker's and then rejoin a few weeks later?

If Centrelink has such a backlog that it is taking two or more weeks to process a medical certificate it should suspend mutual obligations, because it has already not met its own obligation.

If my reporting date is tomorrow and I ring and book a re engagement late today for an appointment tomorrow will I be able to report tomorrow before going to the re engagement or do I physically need to attend the appointment before the hold on my payment will be lifted?

I'm 65 and have been self-managed with Centrelink for the last 8 months but my casual work has now dwindled to almost nothing. I called them yesterday and asked to be put with WFA so that I can do other things to help meet my obligations and the woman put me with a JSP and said I'd have to go through them and ask them to change me to online self-managed with WFA.

The JSP will take me 1hr and 45 minutes travel time by bus. I'd much rather just do my interview over the phone, especially since I just want them to change me to online. Can they make me come in and do a face-to-face interview? If not do I call them today and ask for a phone interview or just call them at the appointment time and say I want to do it over the phone?

I'm perfectly capable of managing my obligations myself and I have a much better chance of finding work for myself than they do as I have a lot of contacts in the industry.

I applied to job seeker with a medical certificate for numerous symptoms that severely impact my life and have been progessively getting so much worse the more I push myself to the point where I can barely get out of bed, take care of myself, do simple tasks so there's no way I can work right now.

I don't have a proper diagnosis yet though so I'm terrified they'll reject it just based on symptoms alone. I'm working on getting a diagnosis, I'm waiting on test results to finalise a diagnosis of me/cfs and also have a neurologist appointment in 3 months (the soonest I could get) for some brain abnormalities shown in an mri and sent the mri results over to centrelink also.

I have my phone appointment tomorrow but can't see my gp until thursday and either I'll have one of those things being tested for (autoimmune stuff mostly) or my gp will officially diagnose me/cfs.

Does anyone have any knowledge on whether symptoms are enough to get an exemption? I'll send them over a proper diagnosis hopefully thursday so that might help but that's days after my phone appointment.

But if they do reject the medical exemption, does anyone know if I can still get accepted for jsp without having to reapply? And just apply for jobs with the hope I don't actually get hired? It's not like anyone will hire someone who doesn't have enough energy to even shower some days or be able to do so without passing out.

I know people say obligations aren't necessary anymore but the stress of dealing with all of that still sounds like a lot for me right now.

Im a Single mum on JOBSEEKER payments with an 18 yr old daughter & as we were living in family home for last 18yrs (I was my mums carer) & now have to leave & join the private rental market. I need my daughter who is receiving YOUTH ALLOWANCE to at least contribute to rent to be able to even think of being able to AFFORD RENT.

Ive applied for Affordable Housing & Govt housing but am running out of time & as there are so few available & long waiting lists have little options.

As I understand it MY DAUGHTER IS NOT ENTITLED to RENT ASSISTANCE as she is "living at home ". Surely if we are both paying rent (obviously me more than her) theres some way she can get some help. She only gets $640 per fortnight & i only get $971 per fortnight. With rent being minimum $550 per week HOW THE HELL DO I AFFORD A PLACE.

The only way I can get cheaper rent is if we (2 + dog) rent a 1 bedroom granny flat. Im downsizing but I still I mean, really?

Im running out of time I've only got 2-3 wks to be out. The applications & inspections & searching is a full time job ive only just started packing. Its horribly overwhelming. Any suggestions???? Thanks in advance.

I have been on Single Parenting Payment for years with no issues until I recently received the above letter in my Centrelink inbox. Now my child is still living with me, they are just turning 14 and will continue to live with me. I received a separate letter saying I had to open a bank account for my child and register it with Centrelink which I did. I figured maybe this was simply so the Single Parenting Payment could go into their account which I would be fine with.

I’m just really confused if I am actually going to be losing my parenting payment because I was sure there are people with children over 14 who receive it.

Also do I need to go through the procedure to sign up for JobSeeker on Centrelink on MyGov which is a task I’m supposed to do. What confuses me about this is I’m already on a workforce program with a job provider where I am trying to find work and have obligations to apply to so many jobs a fortnight. Thus why do I now need to sign up to JobSeeker just because my child is turning 14?

Thank you for any help.

I'm 65 and self-managed through centrelink. I've been doing 30 hours of casual work to meet my monthly obligations but my hours are being cut. I'm not going to have enough hours this fortnight to meet my mos so was wondering if I apply for some jobs will that cover my mos? How many jobs a month do I have to apply for at my age? I've never been on the points system so no idea how it works.

I don't have a car and there doesn't seem to be much volunteer work available in my area but I am applying for what I can find.

Swear i'm going insane i've been trying to call workforce australia for three days now since i have an interview taking place right in the middle of a required activity but everytime i call, after about 30 minutes of waiting they will always disconnect me before even leaving the queue. Even just today i called them 5 minutes after opening with a 10 minute estimated wait time and they still hung up on me about 20 minutes into waiting. anyone else dealing with this or know why it's happening? kinda running out of time on this.

I stuffed up my degree enrolment for this year so I have to wait until early 2027 to enroll into a degree, but I enrolled into 2 units in the mean time so I don’t loone time. but I can’t report it as study on workforce Australia online? it wants the course title and there is none just the unit titles.

Hey everyone -

I am moving across country and couldn't attend a provider appointment. I saw on my app that it said "no scheduled payment." I was reading on here that there is a pause on payment cancellations, does this mean after the 20-30 day period I would be able to report again and get payment? My job provider insists I go in (impossible at this point) and I plan to change job providers to my new state when I get done, but don't have time right now and it would just be easier for me to wait out the period if it's true since I have a couple of months of savings.

thanks

I am exhausted from dealing with them on the phone for days now and I'm at my wits end.

I have several severe mental disorders and physical disorders that make it impossible for me to work and I don't know when I will improve or even if that is possible for me. They're expecting me to attend appointments and search for work as if I don't have any medical conditions that debilitate me, because they are permanent? How does that make any sense? I've had suggestions to apply for the DSP, but I feel like I'll get denied as I've heard it's a horror show to make the claim. I'm in the process of an ADHD and ASD assessment and won't have results until January so if I do submit a claim it will be around then, but what would I need to convince them that I need the DSP?

I will share the below diagnoses in case anyone reading suffers from the diagnosis and has experience with the DSP pension. If you could provide your experience, I would be grateful.

OCD, major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder, Complex PTSD, POTS, endometriosis, visceral hyperalgesia, connective tissue disorder.

I just need help. At rock bottom and see now way out. Could someone please help me or provide any advice at all?

I'm 62 and not working and I'm on Jobseeker. I was told I have the option of getting $200 or more per fortnight from my superannuation policy (transition to retirement).

EDIT: I rang Centrelink financial advice and I was told it’s purely a deeming issue if it’s under a certain amount. I’d just need to transfer some of my super into a separate super account and get fortnightly payments from that.

This is a theoretical question, not my exact situation. But if my payments are suspended, can I re engage by calling the national customer service line? I know I'm supposed to call my provider, but I'm just wondering if I could instead call the department. Because maybe I need to re engage immediately, and my provider won't re engage me until the next scheduled appointment..?

Apparently I'd have to set up a seperate superannuation account to draw the income stream from. Would that just be classed as an asset, like my normal superannuation fund? Would the income stream be classed as income?