Waiting periods and assets testing

The ordinary one week waiting period that applies to some payments is waived when claiming because you’re impacted by COVID-19. The Liquid Assets Waiting Period (LAWP) is also waived if you’re entitled to the Coronavirus Supplement. If you’ve already applied for a payment and are currently serving a LAWP, you won’t need to serve the remainder of the waiting period. This also applies if you’ve applied for a payment which is eligible for the Coronavirus Supplement.

The Income Maintenance Period and Compensation Preclusion Periods continue to apply. This means that if you’ve received a redundancy payment or a lump sum amount of unused leave entitlements, you may not be eligible for a payment straight away.

The assets test is not applied when determining your entitlement to JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (Jobseeker) and Parenting Payment for six months. The income test continues to apply and may reduce the amount of the payment you’re eligible for. If you’re a member of a couple, your partner’s income is taken into account when determining your eligibility.
To access these measures, recipients of JobSeeker Allowance and Youth Allowance (Jobseeker) cannot be receiving employer benefits (such as sick leave or annual leave payments) or income protection payments at the same time.

Share this:

Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is based on information believed to be accurate and reliable at the time of publication. Any illustrations of past performance do not imply similar performance in the future. To the extent permissible by law, neither we nor any of our related entities, employees, or directors gives any representation or warranty as to the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information; or accepts any responsibility for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on the basis of information contained in this newsletter. This information is of a general nature only. It is not intended as personal advice or as an investment recommendation, and does not take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situation and needs of a particular investor. Before making an investment decision you should read the product disclosure statement of any financial product referred to in this newsletter and speak with your financial planner to assess whether the advice is appropriate to your particular investment objectives, financial situation and needs.