Mutual obligations and personal commitments

If you are registered with Services Australia under Workforce Australia or Disability Employment Services, you will already be aware of your Mutual Obligation requirements

Meeting these obligations is important. Sometimes though you may have personal circumstances which may stop you from meeting a Mutual Obligation requirement such as attending a provider appointment.

When this occurs you do have the ability to reschedule without penalty by booking what is called a Personal Event with Services Australia.

A personal event is how you can communicate with your Job Coach about important life commitments that may stop you from meeting a mutual obligation.

These could be one-off events for medical appointments, regular caring commitments such as school drop-offs or cultural or religious holidays.

They can also be things such as regular casual work, attending job interviews or community service.

You can create Personal Events yourself or if you need assistance you can work with your Job Coach to help you.

To book a Personal Event yourself:

1. Sign into My Gov and go to either the Workforce Australia or Disability Employment Services page.
   
2. Select the calendar icon.
   
3. Click on ‘Create Event’ and follow the prompts to add details for your provider.

You can create events up to 8 weeks in advance as one-off or recurring events.

If you are in the Workforce Australia program, you can also create events through the Workforce Australia app if that’s more convenient for you.

Where you create a Personal Event in your calendar, it will need to be confirmed by your Provider. 

You can also talk to your provider and ask them to book a personal event for you which is automatically confirmed.

Personal events can be changed by opening the event in your calendar and editing the details or deleting it altogether.

When you delete an event, you will receive a confirmation message and your Job Coach will be updated to ensure there isn’t confusion with appointments you may now be able to attend.

You can check your calendar for your Personal Events. Confirmed events will have a tick while unconfirmed events will have a question mark.

Your Job Coach must confirm your event and they may leave it unconfirmed if they need information or if they need to schedule a requirement for the same time.

Personal Events help you communicate your availability with your Job Coach and better understand your circumstances.

It’s an important tool for maintaining a good working relationship between you and your Job Coach and helps them better assist you in finding work.

If a requirement needs to be scheduled over a Personal Event your Job Coach needs to discuss this with you.

This can be a great opportunity to provide a better picture of what is happening in your life and how you can both work together to meet your goals.     

Sometimes clashes can’t be avoided.  The best way to lower the chance of this happening is to communicate openly and often with your Job coach about what’s happening in your life.

Working together to find a balance between the important things happening in your life and the obligations you need to meet can help avoid most, if not all, scheduling issues.

If you don’t agree with how your provider schedules your requirements, or if your provider books a provider appointment for a time when you told them you were working, please contact the National Customer Service

Line at NationalCustomerServiceline@dewr.gov.au or call 1800 805 260.

For Workforce Australia participants you can find more information here

For people registered with Disability Employment services you can find more information here