There are steps you need to follow when you join Inclusive Employment Australia. Learn more with our guide to interviews with providers, job plans, mutual obligations and your choices.

Getting started and choosing a provider

Most people get access to Inclusive Employment Australia through a referral from Services Australia. Find out who can use Inclusive Employment Australia and what you might need to do at who is eligible for Inclusive Employment Australia.

It is a good idea to look at our list of providers before you meet with Services Australia.

You can choose a provider because they are close to home or for any other reason, for example because they are close to public transport.

Having an interview

To start in Inclusive Employment Australia, you will need to have an interview with your Inclusive Employment Australia provider, so they can make a plan to meet your needs.

Your provider will talk to you about:

• your skills and interests
• any work and training you have done
• what you are able to do
• the help you need to find and keep a job.

At the interview, your provider will explain your:

• rights – rules about how you should be treated fairly
• obligations – the things you must do when you take part in Inclusive Employment Australia.

They will give you a copy of the Inclusive Employment Australia Service Guarantee and Inclusive Employment Australia Code of Practice. These documents explain the services and rules an Inclusive Employment Australia provider must follow.

Making and following a job plan

Based on your interview, the Inclusive Employment Australia provider will work with you to create a job plan. This is a plan for working with your provider to help you find suitable work.

The job plan will be either:

• a ‘meaningful engagement’ job plan, that sets out a general agreement that you and your provider will work together to make meaningful progress towards your job goals, or
• a ‘detailed’ job plan, which lists the activities and supports you will undertake.

The job plan may include information from your Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) if you had one. Visit Who is eligible for Inclusive Employment Australia for more information on these assessments.

The provider will use the job plan to decide what services you need. You and your provider negotiate and must agree to the details included in your job plan before services start. Your job plan is updated to reflect your current needs and circumstances.

Mutual obligations

The job plan might have activities you must do to keep getting income support payments from Centrelink. These are called ‘mutual obligations’.

Mutual obligations can be things like:

• meeting with your Inclusive Employment Australia provider at set times
• looking for a certain number of jobs each week
• going to appointments with other groups
• going to job interviews
• going to training courses.

Not everyone who is in Inclusive Employment Australia has mutual obligations. Your Inclusive Employment Australia provider will let you know if you do not have mutual obligations.

If you are getting the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and you are under 35, you might have compulsory participation requirements instead to keep getting your DSP.

What if you do not do the activities in your job plan?

If you have mutual obligations, you need to participate in Inclusive Employment Australia to meet those obligations.

If you have a ‘meaningful engagement’ job plan and your provider does not think you are engaging in a meaningful way, they may move you to a ‘detailed’ job plan that lists particular things you need to do.

If you have a ‘detailed’ job plan, there will be things listed in your job plan that you need to do to meet your requirements. If you do not do these things, you need to tell your provider why you did not do them. If you do not have a valid reason why you did not do something you needed to do, Services Australia may lower, suspend or cancel your income support payments.

If you do not have mutual obligations, you are a volunteer and you do not need to do anything in Inclusive Employment Australia. However, your Inclusive Employment Australia provider can remove you from the program if they believe you are not participating. For example, if you do not attend planned training or you keep missing job interviews.

Keeping track of your activities

You can keep track of the activities you do in your job plan through the myGov website. Your Inclusive Employment Australia provider can help you do this.

Pausing your Inclusive Employment Australia program

If you have mutual obligation requirements, you must keep working with your provider unless Services Australia tells you that you do not have to.

For example, if you have a serious illness, Services Australia can pause the program for you. You can ask to get Inclusive Employment Australia services during the pause if you want to.

Inclusive Employment Australia providers do not accept medical certificates. You need to take these to Services Australia.

Keeping your job

Once your Inclusive Employment Australia provider puts you in a job, they can help you with:

• on-the-job training
• talking to your employer and people you work with
• ongoing help in your job
• changing your workplace.

If you risk losing your job because of disability, illness, or health condition you can get help through Work Assist.

Your service choices

When you take part in Inclusive Employment Australia, you can choose the services you get and how you get them. For example, you can:

• choose to have appointments in person, by phone or by video chat – talk to your provider to agree on what works best for you
• change your provider at any time if you are not happy with their services.

You can choose any provider even if they’re not in your local area.  For example, the provider is located close to public transport.

If you want to change your Inclusive Employment Australia provider for any reason you can do this as many times as you like, no questions asked.

If you want to change your provider, call the National Customer Service Line on 1800 805 260 or email.