Recompliance (13 week non-entitlement period)

A client or their partner can complete certain activities to get a temporary provisional benefit if they have a 13-week non-entitlement period because they:

• left a job voluntarily
• lost a job due to misconduct
• have a grade 3 sanction imposed or
• refused an offer of suitable employment.

If a client or their partner want to recomply, MSD must make a 6-week approved activity or programme of activities available to them at the earliest opportunity.

An approved activity can start as soon as a sanction has been imposed, there is no waiting period. 

The client or their partner must do the approved activity for 6 continuous weeks, or until their 13-week non-entitlement period ends (whichever is earlier). This can be through:

• satisfactory participation in a 6-week approved activity or programme of activities
• satisfactory participation in full-time employment or
• part-time employment (if they have part-time work obligations).

Note clients and partners with full-time work obligations should have a full-time 6-week approved activity. Clients and partners with part-time work obligations should have a part-time 6-week approved activity.

Clients and partners with full-time work obligations who are recomplying through approved full-time employment do not get a provisional benefit.

If a client fails to complete their 6-week activity or programme of activities, and their obligations have not changed, their provisional benefit must be reduced or stopped from the date it was increased or granted.

Any provisional benefit the client was paid must be established as a debt. To get a new benefit, the client must wait until the end of the 13-week non-entitlement period to re-apply or to get their full rate of benefit reinstated if the client has dependent children.

When a client with dependent children makes contact at the end of the 13 weeks, MSD should review their circumstances to confirm that the client still qualifies and what rate of payment they should get. MSD must determine the appropriate date to increase the rate from, but this cannot be any earlier than the end of the 13-week period.

Only one approved activity or programme of activities can be assigned to a client. MSD cannot give a client a different approved activity if they fail to satisfactorily complete the original approved activity.

If the client or their partner fails their obligations for a third time, and the third failure is a social obligation failure, then their 6 week recompliance activity will be different.

In this situation it may not be appropriate to choose an activity focused on work outcomes. A programme of short-term approved activities may be more appropriate instead.