Clients with dependent children - 50% protection

Sanctions are applied differently for:

• couples with dependent children, who both fail their social obligations
• couples with dependent children, when a partner fails their obligations
• couples where one person is youth money managed

Clients in these situations with a financial sanction imposed do not have their whole benefit sanctioned. Instead, a maximum sanction of 50% of the total benefit may be imposed. The balance payable is known as 50% protection.

For more information, including treatment of supplementary assistance, see:

• Sanctions for a couple with dependent children - both fail their obligations
• Sanctions for young partners

The 50% protection also applies to these groups if they have a 13-week non-entitlement period for voluntarily leaving employment without a good and sufficient reason, dismissal due to misconduct, or refusing to accept any offer of suitable employment.

Note if a client has more than one obligation failure initiated on the same day, only one sanction can be imposed on the client. For the sanction to be lifted, the client must successfully dispute or recomply with all the obligation failures.

For more information see:

• Recompliance