Commonwealth legislation

Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods - Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1)

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

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This rule tells Centrelink when it must waive waiting periods or penalties for people claiming unemployment benefits.

Usually, people claiming Newstart Allowance (now JobSeeker Payment) or Youth Allowance might face:

Waiting periods before payments start (due to liquid assets or other reasons)
Non-payment periods for not meeting job-seeking requirements

This instrument protects your payments if you are doing either of:

Stream 4 employment services — Intensive support for people with significant barriers to work (the highest complexity tier in the employment services system at the time)
Rehabilitation programs — Medical or vocational rehabilitation (as defined in the Social Security Act)

Why it matters: If you're participating in these specific intensive support programs, Centrelink cannot stop your payments or force you to serve waiting periods. This ensures people getting serious help to overcome barriers (like disability or long-term unemployment) aren't penalised while they work on getting job-ready.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods - Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1).

Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods - Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1)

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Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods — Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1)

Social Security Act 1991

I, LISA MARIAN PAUL, Secretary of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, make this instrument under subsections 549A (6), 553B (2A), 553C (5), 598 (8A), 620 (3), 633 (5) and 634 (2A) of the Social Security Act 1991.

Dated 10th May 2009

LISA PAUL
Secretary of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

1 Name of instrument

This instrument is the Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods — Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1).

2 Commencement

This instrument commences on 1 July 2009.

3 Definitions

In this instrument:

Act means the Social Security Act 1991.

Stream 4 employment services means those services specified as Stream 4 in the Employment Services Deed 2009-2012.

4 Specification of activities

For paragraphs 549A (5) (a), 553B (2) (a), 553C (4) (a), 598 (8) (a),
620 (2) (a), 633 (4) (a) and 634 (2) (a) of the Act, the following activities are specified:

(a) an activity undertaken by a person as part of Stream 4 employment services provided to the person;

(b) a rehabilitation program.

Note Rehabilitation program is defined in subsection 23 (1) of the Act.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Social Security (Exemptions from Non-payment and Waiting Periods - Activities) Specification 2009 (No. 1)