youth activity obligation failures
obligation failures and sanctions are a tool to be used when you've tried everything else but taiohi still won't comply with their obligations
recommending a youth activity obligations failure
Even with your support, sometimes young people don't comply with their youth activity obligations.
In other words, this is when a young person does not:
- attend their meetings with you as their assigned Provider
- enrol, undertake, or make themselves available to participate in education, training or work-based learning
- participate in and complete an approved budgeting programme, or
- participate in and complete an approved parenting programme.
When this happens, you must try to contact with the young person to make sure they don't have a good reason for not complying.
When you can get it contact with the young person
If they have a good a sufficient reason you shouldn't recommend an obligation failure, you should instead support the young person to recomply with the obligation or apply for an exemption.
If they don't, you'll need to recommend for YSSU to initiate an obligation failure.
For information on good and sufficient reasons see good and sufficient reason before initiating an activity obligations failure - map
If you can't get in touch with the young person
If you cannot make contact with the young person, you must update the activity section in ART to:
- recommend an activity obligations failure
- describe what steps you have taken to contact the young person, and
- detail how the young person has failed their youth activity obligations.
Once the activity is updated, ART will automatically send a notification to YSSU.
YSSU will respond via ART to your notification confirming if the activity obligations failure has been initiated.
Learn more
Youth Payment - activity obligations failures | map
Young Parent Payment - activity obligations failures | map
Young Partners and Young Parent Partners - activity obligations failures | map
once a youth activity obligations failure has been initiated
The obligation failure is initiated when YSSU agrees with your recommendation that you sent to them in ART.
The young person will receive a text message or a letter notifying them of their activity obligations failure. The young person will then have five working days to work with you to:
- recomply with their obligations, or
- dispute their activity obligations failure.
If the young person does not make contact, recomply, or dispute their activity obligations failure then a sanction will be imposed and their payments will be affected.
If the young person recomplies or provides a good and sufficient reason
If the young person recomplies you will notify YSSU. The young person will not be sanctioned but the obligation failure will still be recorded.
If the young person provides a good and sufficient reason you will notify YSSU. The young person will not be sanctioned and the obligation failure will not be recorded.
when a sanction is imposed
Young people will get a text message or a letter when a sanction has been imposed.
The text message or letter will let the young person know that their payments may stop or be reduced. The text message will refer them to the Work and Income website where they can find more information about how to recomply.
You as their youth coach will receive a notification from YSSU via ART to let you know that the young person has been notified of their sanction.
During this period
The young person will have five more working days from the day the sanction has been imposed by YSSU to recomply with their obligations. The young person can also dispute the obligation failure within this period.
If the young person does not recomply or successfully dispute their obligation failure during this period the sanction will go into affect and the young person's payments will be reduced or stop.
disputes or reviewing a decision
A young person has the right to dispute or review activity obligation failures or sanctions.
A young person should always be given the opportunity to review and discuss any decision, including final decisions made by YSSU. If the young person wishes to lodge a dispute or review of decision, you must follow the process outlined here disputes and complaints | youth service providers.
Learn more
obligation failures, disputes and recompliance | youth service providers
recompliance
When a sanctioned young person makes contact with you to review their entitlement to a benefit payment, you must discuss their circumstances and encourage and arrange a recompliance activity*.
At this meeting you must discuss:
- are they prepared to engage and comply with their activity obligations?
- are they meeting the eligibility criteria?
- how have they been living on reduced payments?
- and, if they are receiving income from any source.
You must notify YSSU of the outcome of this meeting, including any re-compliance activity via ART. YSSU will determine ongoing entitlement and resume the young person's benefit payment if appropriate.
A young person can recomply with their youth activity obligations by participating in the same or a similar activity to the one which they failed.
As soon as a young person recomplies you must send add an activity to the young person's profile ART to capture what the young person is doing to recomply and send a recompliance task to YSSU.
When a young parent doesn't comply for four weeks you should begin the review entitlement to benefit payment process. See review entitlement to benefit payment | youth service provider
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*Recompliance activity: an activity is the same or a similar to the activity that the young person failed to do.
recompliance (grade 1 and 2) | map
recompliance (13 week non-entitlement period) | map