3.11.14.70 Comprehensive compliance assessments

Introduction

The RAES commenced on 1 November 2025, replacing the Community Development Program (CDP). The service operates in RAES regions (formerly CDP regions). The RAES supports participants with the skills, mentoring and training they need to take up job opportunities, including those created through the Remote Jobs and Economic Development (RJED) program. Relevant information is being continually updated in the Social Security Guide.

This section concerns information on comprehensive compliance assessments under the compliance arrangements set out in SS(Admin)Act Part 3 Division 3A, otherwise known as the Job Seeker Compliance Framework. These arrangements only apply to participants on participation payments who are declared program participants (that is, RAES participants) under the Social Security (Declared Program Participant) Determination 2025.

Services Australia will assess a participant who is having difficulty meeting their mutual obligation requirements to determine the reasons for this. This assessment is known as a CCA and the below outlines the process and matters to be considered when completing a CCA.

Initiating a CCA

A CCA will be initiated after a participant has had EITHER 3 connection, non-attendance or reconnection failures applied OR 3 NSNP failures applied in a 6-month period. If, during the previous 6 months, the participant has already had a CCA or has had a serious failure (3.11.14.40) period applied for persistent non-compliance, any failures that occurred before either of those things do not count.

Employment services providers or Services Australia may also initiate a CCA at any other time if they believe a participant's circumstances warrant it. (For example, if the participant is continually failing to comply with their requirements for no apparent reason.)

Once a CCA is triggered, no more NSNP (3.11.14.20), connection, non-attendance or reconnection failures can be applied (3.11.14.30). Failure to attend a CCA (and an appropriately rescheduled CCA) may also result in immediate suspension of the participation payment.

Conducting a CCA

During the CCA, a Services Australia specialist officer considers the participant's compliance history and looks at why the participant has been failing to meet their requirements, whether there are any barriers to employment and whether the participation requirements are appropriate.

Services Australia cannot apply a serious failure period for persistent non-compliance unless a CCA has been conducted and the findings have been considered in determining whether a serious failure is to be applied. However, the intent of the CCA is not just to determine whether a participant has been persistently non-compliant, the CCA must also assess:

• the reasons why the participant may have committed failures under SS(Admin)Act Part 3 Division 3A, or may have failed to meet other requirements under the social security law
• whether the participant has any barriers to employment, and
• whether the participant's participation requirements are appropriate.

The Services Australia specialist officer may contact the participant's provider to give them the opportunity to provide any further information to inform the CCA. It is not compulsory for providers to accept the offer to participate in CCA discussions.

Possible outcomes of a CCA include:

• a referral for an ESAt, where the participant does not have the capacity to comply with their requirements or the participant's capacity to comply with their requirements is in doubt
• a recommendation that the requirements in the participant's Job Plan be amended if the CCA indicates that the participant is having difficulty meeting those requirements
• a recommendation that the participant be referred to another program or service to assist the participant with their personal circumstance, such as a referral to a social worker or a recommendation that the participant be referred to a specialist intervention such as a drug or alcohol dependency program
• no further action, where no barriers to participation have been identified but there is a reasonable explanation for the participant's past failures and/or the participant's recent compliance record is good, and
• the application of a serious failure for persistent non-compliance (see 3.11.14.40 for more detail).

The findings of the CCA should be used to inform future decisions about the participant's mutual obligation requirements.