48Seasonal workers

48 Seasonal workers

(1) This section applies if, at any time during the 6 months immediately before the day a person lodges a claim for farm household allowance, the person, or, if the person is a member of a couple, the person or the person’s partner, has been engaged in seasonal work. (2) Farm household allowance is not payable to a person who is subject to a seasonal work preclusion period (whether in relation to the claim referred to in subsection (1) or any other claim under the Social Security Act) for the person’s seasonal work preclusion period. (3) Despite subsection (2), the Secretary may determine that a person is not subject to the whole, or any part, of the preclusion period if the Secretary is satisfied that the person is in severe financial hardship because the person has incurred substantiated unavoidable or reasonable expenditure while the person is subject to a seasonal work preclusion period (whether in relation to the claim referred to in subsection (1) or any other claim under the Social Security Act). (4) The Secretary’s rules may set out ways for substantiating unavoidable or reasonable expenditure.