Counting previous obligations failures

The sanction imposed depends on how often the client has failed to comply with their obligations in the previous 24 months while getting a benefit.

Previous failures are only counted if the failure occurred within the last 24 months while continuously getting a benefit.

Note this does not apply to clients receiving Emergency Maintenance Allowance where the equivalent benefit is Young Parent Payment. These clients have youth activity obligations, and these failures are counted for 12 months.

The 24-month count starts from the day the obligation failure is imposed. Each obligation failure has its own 24-month count.

Example

A client fails their first obligation on 1 June 2025. They fail another obligation on 1 October 2025, and have an obligation failure count of two. Their obligation failure count is reset to one on 1 June 2027, 24 months after they failed their first obligation.

Their obligation failure count is reset to zero on 1 October 2027, 24 months after the second obligation failure.

If a client transfers between benefits, any obligations failures within the previous 24 months are still counted.

Failures on a previous benefit type will count toward the failure count on the new benefit, even if the same obligations do not apply.

From 26 May 2025, the obligations failure count period increased from 12 months to 24 months.

Any obligation failures that were initiated before 26 May 2025 will only be counted for 12 months.

Obligation failures (except youth activity obligation failures) initiated from 26 May 2025 onwards will be counted for 24 months.