Being breached

If you don't meet activity test requirements, you can be 'breached'. This means that your payment may be suspended or even cut off for eight weeks.

If you get a regular breach (Centrelink uses the term “participation failure”), your payment will be suspended until you meet the original requirement or an alternative. You may or may not get backpay, depending on the timing. You may get an additional breach if you fail to fix an earlier breach.

You can get a regular breach for:

not attending an interview or providing information when requested
not attending a medical assessment
failing to look for work adequately
failing to enter into an Activity Agreement
failing to comply with a term of an Agreement
failing to keep a job seeker diary and return it to Centrelink when required
failing to attend a job interview
failing to undertake or complete work for the dole when required, or to comply with the conditions of such a program if you have been unemployed for under two years
failing to undertake or complete a labour market program, or being removed from a program for misconduct
failing to apply for the notified number of jobs, or get employer verification of your contact
failing to rectify a previous breach.

On the other hand, if you get a “serious” breach (Centrelink uses the term “serious failure”), your payment will be cut off for eight weeks. You are not given any opportunity to fix a “serious” breach.

You can get a “serious” breach for:

Refusing a reasonable job offer
Being “voluntarily” unemployed
Being sacked due to (serious) misconduct
Refusing to do Work for the Dole if you have been unemployed for longer than two years
Having three or more regular breaches in a twelve month period

If an eight week non-payment period is imposed, and you are a carer or have dependants, or a person with a disability who has medication or treatment requirements, you may be eligible for Financial Case Management. This involves seeing a case manager each fortnight, who will then recommend to Centrelink the payment of essential expenses.