Definitions & FAQs

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not in paid employment or a full-time student, during the eight weeks directly prior to commencing employment with the eligible employer for Back to Work Incentive Payments.

Activities that do not constitute paid employment and do not impact on eligibility include:

• Receiving payments that relate to government benefits
• Unpaid volunteer work
• Participating in a Skilling Queenslanders for Work program
• Participating in the Prepare or Trial elements of the Australian Government’s Youth Jobs PaTH (Prepare, Trial, Hire) program.

Activities that do not constitute unemployment and are not eligible for the Back to Work program include:

• Periods of leave including unpaid leave
• Undertaking full-time study (full-time study is defined by the student’s educational institution)
• If you have participated in the Hire element of the Australian Government’s Youth PATH program
• Participating in a school-based apprenticeship.

Applications must be submitted by the employer, not an agent or other party. This is due to the requirement for the employer to agree to the conditions of the Back to Work Program which is outlined in the Back to Work Employer Incentive Payments Guidelines for Funding.

The employee must be a permanent resident of Australia and their principal place of residency must be in Queensland. A principal place of residence is a residence you live in (with your personal belongings) on a daily basis. A permanent resident is:

• A citizen of Australia or
• A non-citizen who is a holder of a permanent visa to live, work and study without restriction in Australia.

The Back to Work program supports the employment of Queenslanders with a disability including but not restricted to those individuals who have long-term physical, mental, cognitive, intellectual or sensory impairments.

If the employee has a disability and an Employment Services Assessment (ESAT) or a Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) to work between 8 and 20 hours per week, a signed letter issued by a Disability Employment Services Provider or Department of Human Services endorsed JCA must be attached to the application.

This document should detail the employee’s approved benchmark working hours or the application will not meet the required eligibility criteria. The employee must be working in accordance with their approved benchmark working hours.

These eligible part-time jobs will attract 75 per cent of the full-time payment.

If the eligible employee does not require an ESAT or JCA then the employer may be eligible for the part-time or full-time incentive payment, if all other eligibility criteria is met.

Applicants will be entering into a legal agreement with the Queensland Government. Applicants will need to confirm, for each application submitted, that:

• They have thoroughly read and understood the Guidelines for Funding and Terms and Conditions.
• They have consented to the Privacy Collection Notice detailed within the Terms and Conditions. This specifically authorises the Back to Work Team to share information with Queensland and Australian Government agencies including but not limited to the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training; Office of State Revenue; Queensland Treasury; Office of Industrial Relations; Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning; Queensland Ombudsman; Queensland Audit Office; WorkCover Queensland; Australian Taxation Office; Fair Work Ombudsman; Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment and Centrelink. This is for the purposes of:
  • Evaluating, administering, assessing, monitoring and auditing compliance with the eligibility criteria for the Back to Work Program
  • Supporting the delivery of other Back to Work funding and support
  • Promoting the Back to Work Program.
• They have obtained the consent of the employee referred to in the application to disclose their personal information for the purposes and to the entities set out in the privacy collection notice in the Terms and Conditions.
• The employer and its office holders are compliant, and will continue to comply, with all local, state and Australian Government laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, industrial relations and taxation (including superannuation) legislation.
• The information they have provided is correct and they have not provided false or misleading information within the application.

All eligibility criteria must be met to receive a Back to Work Incentive payment and other additional support.

The revitalised Back to Work program has a strong focus on supporting employee retention. Retention is achieved when employers have an ongoing commitment to the employment of the employee. For the purpose of the revitalised Back to Work program, retention is where employees are employed beyond 52 weeks.

For the eligible employers to access the full amount of the relevant Back to Work Incentive Payment available, the employee must be continuously employed for 52 weeks.

The Terms and Conditions in QGrants set out how information collected as part of the application process will be used by the Queensland Government. Broadly, the information can be used for the purposes of evaluating, administering, assessing, monitoring and auditing compliance with the eligibility criteria for the Back to Work Program, to support delivery of other Back to Work funding and support,  and to promote the Back to Work Program.

Applicants must provide information about their employees for the purposes of assessing eligibility. Employers must declare that they have obtained consent from their employee to disclose personal details for the purposes set out in the privacy statement in the Terms and Conditions.

For further information about how the Back to Work Team manages personal information, please contact the Privacy Contact Officer by email at corporate.legal@desbt.qld.gov.au.

Initial payment applications must be received within 12 weeks of the employee completing four weeks of continuous employment.

Later payment applications must be received within 12 weeks of the employee completing:

• 26 weeks of continuous employment for the second Back to Work Support Payment or Youth Boost payment.
• 52 weeks of continuous employment for the final Back to Work Support Payment or Youth Boost payment.

Applications and claims received outside of these timeframes will be ineligible for payment. It is highly recommended that applicants submit their applications well before the cut-off date.

If your initial application was approved under the Back to Work Guidelines for Funding 2020-21, your later payment claims will continue to be assessed under these guidelines as they become due in the 2021-22 financial year.

Applicants must notify the Back to Work Team immediately of any problems submitting their applications within the required timeframe at backtowork@desbt.qld.gov.au.

The online application process for Back to Work requires evidence that the employer, employee, job and additional requested support meet the eligibility criteria as outlined in the relevant program Guidelines. This evidence must be submitted when making your online application.

Some evidence documents must be certified by an authorized witness under the Oaths Act 1867. Details on Statutory Declaration forms and who is an authorised witness can be found here.

WorkCover Policy or Licence

In Queensland, under the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (QLD), an employer must, for each worker employed, insure and remain insured for their legal liability to pay compensation and damages to their workers.

You will be required to provide your WorkCover Policy or Licence Number and expiration date in your application. Information provided by you, about your business, including your Workcover Policy or Licence Number, may be disclosed to WorkCover for the purpose of verifying your compliance of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (QLD).

Witnessed identification for the person submitting the application

Evidence is required of the identity of the person submitting the application through QGrants. This identification must match the name and details of the person identified in the QGrants account responsible for submitting the application and be witnessed by an independent authorised person.

Acceptable identification documents are:

• an Australian driver licence;
• adult proof of age card (e.g. 18+ card);
• birth certificate;
• citizenship certificate;
• passport.

The identification must be current (not expired) at the date the application it is supporting is submitted.

Copy of paper ABN confirmation advice

All registered businesses will have received an ABN confirmation advice at the time of registering the business. This advice may have been made available to you electronically at the time you registered for an ABN or have been sent to you in the mail. If you cannot locate this document a copy of the advice (which includes a letter) can be requested from the Australian Business Register.

The ABN and the name on the ABN confirmation advice and/or ABN lookup is not accepted as evidence. This is because this documentation is publicly available and accessible by other parties.

Payslips

An employee must have been in ongoing and continuous paid full-time or part-time employment with your business for at least four full weeks prior to the initial payment application being made and must have worked the minimum average hours relevant to the application being made.

To substantiate that these requirements have been met, please provide copies of the employee’s payslips for the first four continuous weeks of their employment. Payslips must be submitted; timesheets or a payroll summary report is not sufficient. The ABN and name on the payslips you provide must match the ABN and name on your ABN confirmation advice and QGrants organisation account.

Payslips must meet the minimum requirements as set out by Fair Work Australia under the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009. This includes any superannuation contributions paid for the employee’s benefit, including the amount of contributions made during the pay period (or the amount of contributions that need to be made).

Information on the legal requirements for payslips is available through the Fair Work Australia website.

Employee consent form

An employee consent form (available on the Back to Work website), must be included with all initial payment applications submitted in QGrants.

This form must be completed and signed by the employee the application is regarding.

Employee identification

Evidence is required of the identity of the jobseeker that has been employed. Acceptable identification documents are:

• an Australian driver licence;
• adult proof of age card (e.g. 18+ card);
• birth certificate;
• citizenship certificate;
• passport.

Note: if a non-Australian passport is being submitted as evidence, a letter issued by the Australian Government to the employee outlining their visa details must also be submitted.

The employee identification must be current (not expired) at the date the employee commenced employment. The first name, surname and date of birth on the employee identification must match the first name, surname and date of birth on the application.

Employees with a disability

If an employee has a disability and an Employment Services Assessment (ESAT) or a Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) to work between 8 and 20 hours per week, a signed letter issued by a Disability Employment Services Provider or Department of Human Services endorsed JCA must be attached to the application. This document should detail the employee’s approved benchmark working hours or the application will not meet the required eligibility criteria. The employee must be working in accordance with their approved benchmark hours. If the payslips do not align with the approved benchmark working hours the application will not meet the required eligibility criteria.

These eligible part-time jobs will attract 75 per cent of the full-time payment.

Unincorporated associations and trust arrangements

Unincorporated associations and trusts are permitted to make application to the Back to Work program.

In these circumstances, the individual who is authorised to make the application on behalf of the management committee or the trustee/s must provide evidence that they are operating within the rules and authority of the unincorporated association or trust deed when entering into an agreement with the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training.

These declarations must include that the applicant:

• will comply with the requirements of unincorporated associations or trust deed under the Back to Work program
• is appropriately indemnified out of the funds of the unincorporated association or trust arrangement; and
• acknowledges that the applicant accepts to be personally liable under the arrangement with the Department.

If you are waiting for evidence documents (e.g. ABN confirmation advice) to complete your application and it is getting close to the due date, you can still apply.

Please submit your application with the information and documents you have available and provide the details of the documents you are waiting for as an attachment to your application. You will be contacted by a member of the Back to Work Team to discuss next steps.

Applications will be assessed based on the following eligibility criteria:

• Has the applicant complied with these guidelines including:
  • eligible employer
  • eligible job
  • eligible employee
  • completion of required periods of employment
  • timeframes for submitting applications
  • supporting evidence and documentation
  • necessary consents
  • existence of previous approvals (for later payments) and
  • cap on approved applications?
• Has the applicant (and, if the applicant is not an individual, its owners) and the applicant’s management staff, complied with local, State and Commonwealth laws and regulations, including but not limited to laws relating to workplace safety and industrial relations?
• Has the applicant demonstrated a genuine commitment to the ongoing employment of the employee and other employees for whom applications have been submitted?
• Has the applicant’s engagement of the employee displaced any existing workers?
• Where the employment is provided for an employee with a disability, is the employee engaged in mainstream employment?
• Are there any public interest issues indicating the application should not be approved?

Examples of when an application might not be approved on public interest basis include:

• the applicant, its owners, or relevant management staff, have a history of poor compliance with legislation, including but not limited to laws relating to workplace safety and industrial relations
• matters involving fraud
• the applicant has already received funding for the employee under another government program.

Applications submitted with all complete and correct information and documents are usually processed within 20 business days. This may change depending on application volume.

If you have been requested to provide more information following an initial review, your application will remain open until the required evidence documents are uploaded onto the system. You can review the status of your application at any time by logging into the QGrants system.

Please note, in these cases the 20 business days recommences again upon the Back to Work Team receiving the additional information.

Once an application is processed and approved, payment will be made via electronic transfer, usually within 5-10 business days. The payment is made into the registered account so please ensure the bank account details provided in your application are kept up-to-date. Please be aware that this payment timeframe refers to the financial institution’s processing timeframes only and does not reflect application processing times.

If the employee ceases employment with you after a payment has been made, you do not need to return the payments already received, but you will be ineligible for any further payments for that employee. However, if it is determined that you have received a payment for which the eligibility criteria were not met, the Queensland Government will seek to recover that payment from you.

If the employee ceases employment, or their employment conditions significantly change (e.g. they move from full-time to part-time), after an application has been made, you must notify the Back to Work Team in writing at backtowork@desbt.qld.gov.au providing:

• The date employment ceased or changed and
• An explanation of the reason why the employee ceased employment or had their employment conditions altered.

This information will be held on record for program monitoring and audit purposes. Further information can be found in the Terms and Conditions.

Applicants must reaffirm that they continue to meet the eligibility criteria for all later payments outlined in the payment schedule. Evidence must be provided to support each later application including that continuous employment has occurred for the specified period of time. Applicants are required to upload into the QGrants System a clear and legible scan of the required documents in a PDF, JPEG or Word format.

Some evidence documents must be certified by an authorised witness under the Oath Act 1867. Details on Statutory Declarations and who is an authorised witness can be found here.

The authorised witness must visually sight the original documents and check that there are no alterations to the copies. They are to pay particular attention to names, dates and reference numbers. The authorised witness then endorses the copies with the following certification:

This is to certify that this is a true and correct copy of the original document, which I have sighted.

Date:

Signature of authorised witness:

Name of authorised witness:

Title of authorised witness (as per Statutory Declarations Regulations 2018):

Required documents are:

Proof is required of the identity of the person submitting the application through QGrants. This identification must match the name and details of the person responsible in the QGrants account who is submitting the application.

Acceptable identification documents are:

• an Australian driver licence
• adult proof of age card (e.g. 18+ card)
• birth certificate
• citizenship certificate
• passport.

The identification must be current (not expired) at the date the employee commenced employment.

Payslips

An employee must have been in ongoing and continuous paid full-time or part-time employment with your business for the full 26-week or 52-week claim period prior to the claim being made and must have worked the minimum average hours relevant to the application being made.

To substantiate that these requirements have been met, please provide copies of all employee payslips up to the 26-week or 52-week period of their employment. Payslips must be submitted; timesheets or a payroll summary report is not sufficient.

The ABN and name on the payslips you provide must match the ABN and on your ABN confirmation advice and QGrants organisation account.

If the application has been processed and has been assessed as not meeting the eligibility criteria then the applicant will be notified that it has not been approved. Applicants may request a review of a decision made by the Back to Work Team in relation to the provision of a Back to Work Employer Support, Youth Boost or Mature Aged Worker Boost payment. This request must be lodged within 30 calendar days after the decision was given to the applicant.

The request should state in detail the grounds the applicant believes the original decision should be overturned. The applicant should also attach all relevant material that supports their request. The team will only review decisions once the statement and relevant supporting material have been provided. All program eligibility criteria must be met for an original decision to be overturned.

If an applicant requests review of decisions that relate to more than one application, the applicant will need to submit separate formal requests for review for each decision.

Review requests and the additional supporting material must be lodged in writing to:

Review Officer, Back to Work Program

PO Box 15483

City East

Brisbane QLD 4002

Or by email:

compliance@desbt.qld.gov.au

Applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of the review within 60 business days from the receipt of the written request.

Advice will be published on the Back to Work website if funding under Back to Work is no longer available, or the program has been discontinued.

The taxation implications of any payments made to an applicant under the Back to Work program may differ depending on the applicant’s personal circumstances. The Queensland Government is unable to provide taxation advice and accordingly we recommend consulting your own professional adviser to determine any taxation implications that may apply.

The Australian Taxation Office has information that may also be able to assist you at www.ato.gov.au

When you have lodged an application through the QGrants system it will be assigned a status. Your application status can be checked anytime by logging into your QGrants account.

Status definitions include:

Draft

If an application has been started through the QGrants system and saved without being submitted, then the application is in draft. This means the application has not been sent to the Back to Work Team for consideration. To progress the application, the applicant is required to complete it online with all requested evidence documents attached. It is recommended that the work is saved at every stage of the application to avoid losing important information during the process.

Please be aware that applications must be submitted within the relevant application eligibility period. Any applications left in draft cannot be assessed by the Back to Work Team.

Ineligible

To be eligible for the Back to Work Employer Support or Youth Boost payments all eligibility criteria must be met. If the application does not meet the program’s eligibility criteria then it will be deemed ineligible and will not be submitted for further assessment to the Back to Work Team. It is recommended that all applicants read through the eligibility criteria prior to applying to ensure they can meet all the program criteria.

In Process

Once an application is successfully submitted through QGrants and it has passed the system validations, the application status will be In Process. This means that your application has been successfully submitted to the Back to Work Team for processing.

All applications are reviewed to ensure that both the eligibility criteria have been met and correct supporting documentation has been provided. All approvals are dependent on the Back to Work Team’s review to ensure all eligibility criteria are met and evidence supplied meets the program guidelines. Processing times for applications will vary depending on the complexity of applications and the volume of applications received. Applications submitted with all complete and correct information and evidence documents are usually processed within 15 business days.

Approved or Agreement Created

Once the application has been processed by the Back to Work Team and is deemed to have met all the eligibility criteria it will be approved. Payments will be made via electronic transfer in approximately 5-10 business days of the application being approved. Please note, your financial institution’s payment processing times may vary.

The applicant will receive an email informing them of the approval and their obligations as a recipient of funding under the Back to Work Program. The approval is subject to the rights and limitations provided in the Terms and Conditions, including if it is reasonably determined that you have received a payment for which the eligibility criteria were not met, the Queensland Government will require you to repay that payment.

Not Approved

If the application has been processed and has been assessed as not meeting the eligibility criteria then the applicant will be notified that it has not been approved. Unsuccessful applicants will be provided with reasons why their application was not approved and can request a review of that decision.

More Information Required

During the assessment process, applicants may be asked to provide further information to support their claim. If the applicant is requested to provide more information, the application will be re-opened by the Back to Work Team in QGrants so that further documentation can be uploaded and the application resubmitted. It is important that the applicant ensures that all information provided is correct throughout the whole application as the Employer Declaration must be reaffirmed.

Once the requested information has been provided, and resubmitted, the status of the application will change to In Process and proceed for processing by the Back to Work Team.