The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations announced last week that they will be pausing mutual obligations for the rollout of the new Inclusive Employment Australia (IEA) program from the 16^th of October through to the 5th January 2026.

IEA is replacing what you might know as Disability Employment Services (DES) and will formally begin on the 1^st of November. More people will be able to access the program and you can seek assistance from a job provider even if you don’t receive a Centrelink payment.

The pause on mutual obligations for the rollout means that people are protected from issues in the shift between systems and give people time to look around for providers that will serve you best.

DANA, standing alongside the Antipoverty Centre, Inclusion Australia, and other disability organisations have argued for this pause and we are pleased Government has made the right call here.

What this means if you use IER/DES:

• All tasks from your IEA provider are voluntary from the 16^th of October until the 6^th of January. You only have to participate if you want to. You do not have to speak to your provider or respond to their attempts to get in contact with you.
• You cannot be made to complete job applications, attend appointments with your provider, undertake training or do other things to continue receiving your Centerlink payment. You can still do these things if you want to.
• Centrelink payments will not be suspended, cancelled, or reduced during this time.
• Additionally, any demerits you have accrued under the current DES system will be reset.

If your provider tells you that you have to do compulsory activities during this time – this is not true.

If this happens, you can contact the Workforce Australia National Customer Service Line on 1800 805 260 or via nationalcustomerserviceline@dewr.gov.au and lodge a complaint. You can also contact your local disability advocacy organisation for help.

Some more information about pauses on mutual obligations is on the Workforce Australia Website here.

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This is a good decision from Government, and we want to make sure this is only the start of the improvements they make.

Unfortunately, it will still be possible for providers to suspend your payment from the 5^th of January next year. This pause will also not apply if you have to use Workforce Australia services (i.e non-disability job providers).

Several weeks ago we joined with several other welfare, social services and disability organisations to call for all payment penalties to end immediately. All people deserve access to income support that is fair, lawful and free from the risk of harm and getting rid of all penalties is the most effective way to make real change quickly.

Because there is strong evidence to suggest that parts of the Target Compliance Framework (the bit of legislation that lets Centrelink payments be suspended or cancelled) have been operating unlawfully, the power for payments to be cancelled or reduced is not currently being used. Recent analysis from Economic Justice Australia suggested that over 300,000 people could have had their payments cancelled unlawfully.

However, tens of thousands of people continue to have their payments suspended each month. While a recent Deloitte report attracted a lot of attention because large swaths of it were made up using AI, the real story is that the report itself was commissioned because the Government felt there was a real risk that these systems have been operating unlawfully.

We are shortly expecting the release of a further report into the lawfulness of these suspensions, and will share more when that happens. 

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