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@AusUnemployment Currently on the phone with job active. I have 2 days to sign a job plan or I will be penalised, DESPITE mutual obligations currently being on hold. When I advised I would refuse I was told “well you will be exited and your payments stopped” Is this correct?
Continued questioning did not elicit any definitive answers. How can you stop my payments if signing a job plan is currently voluntary and attracts no penalties? If I choose not to sign this job plan now what happens when MO are no longer voluntary?
Told I was being transferred to Centrelink to answer queries she couldn’t. She just transferred me back to her hotlines main menu. I chose other and asked the guy who answered if he was able to help me. He said yes but his dept was definitely not Centrelink as she’d advised.
His answers, which I fully understand are based on current legislature and not at all within his scope to make decisions on, we’re as follows:
You do not HAVE to sign your job plan. This does mean that at the time when MO again become required you will need to sign a job plan. HOWEVER. By refusing the plan sent by the Online Employment Service, you will be forced to sign on to a JSP.
IF I sign the Job Plan through the Online Employment Service, it will essentially Time Out in six or maybe twelve months, and I will be onboarded to a JSP regardless.
In other words, I am currently being held over a barrel that I get a JSP in a few weeks or in a few months.
In other words, I am currently being held over a barrel that I get a JSP in a few weeks or in a few months.
I took the initiative to commence study while the MO suspension was in place. My Job Plan does not include anything about study. It requires me to look for jobs, attend interviews, and accept work if offered. I cannot find a way to view full details of my plan, or nominate study
I cannot actually see the details of my plan through the signing process. I have to sign it before I can access what I am actually agreeing to.
Further questions I am yet to have any answer to.
How can my study be applied to my MO requirements?
If looking for work or attending interviews causes me to fall behind or fail units am I going to be compensated to retake those units? (Of course not haha)
How can my study be applied to my MO requirements?
If looking for work or attending interviews causes me to fall behind or fail units am I going to be compensated to retake those units? (Of course not haha)
If I do get offered work, and I have to accept it, but I do not have access to childcare because of COVID restrictions, lack of familial support or other reasons, what happens? I’m a single parent. My child is too young to be home alone. I have no friends or family care network.
What happens if I am unable to attend interviews or accept work because my child’s school (and corresponding OSHC) is closed because of a COVID outbreak? What happens if we have to return to distance learning? I cannot apply for jobs I know I will not be able to actually work at.
What happens if fulfilling my MO exposes me, and subsequently my child to increased risk? From infection, from financial burdens, from my ability to provide ongoing care? I am solely responsible for the care of my child, my participation in MO threatens my ability to do that.
I don’t have the answers. And I have two days to make a decision that is supposedly “voluntary” and risk an unknown timeframe of when I may face penalties, which I do not have the financial capacity to withstand while fighting them.
Where I am at currently: Centrelink says I should actually be on Austudy, I should submit a claim and then my Job Plan will be superseded by a full time study exemption. This may take some time, so I will advise the OES and hopefully this will give me some breathing room.
I will add to this hideously long thread that I do want a job. But we all know the current state of employment opportunities is dire. My home and job circumstances changed suddenly at the beginning of lockdown that made my job untenable and my re-employment suitability low.
And you’re all wonderful. All of you. Those who have been stuck in a bullshit system for too long. Those who are newly thrust into it. Those who never have been but support those who are in these situations. You’re all amazing. Keep going.
Today’s update: I applied for Austudy and magically overnight my claim was approved, my payment changed and I don’t need a job plan or a jsp until my course ends. So I have about nine months I can commit to studying and begin to explore work in my field without MO over my head.
