Community Work Experience
Community Work Experience means you need to get a position at a community or voluntary organisation. You need to do at least 5 hours of work a week, for 4 weeks. This can help you build work-related skills and confidence, as well as make valuable connections in your community.
You'll continue to get your full benefit payment until you've finished your Community Work Experience. Once you've finished and come to an appointment with a form that the organisation has signed, you'll move back to green.
When we'll put you on Community Work Experience
If you move to orange in the traffic light system, you need to meet with us while you're at orange. At that meeting we may decide to put you on Community Work Experience when you move to red, instead of reducing your benefit.
You may be put on Community Work Experience if:
- this is the first time in the last 2 years you haven't met your obligations
- you don't have a good reason for not meeting your obligations
- you meet with us while you're at orange in the traffic light system
- you have dependent children or a dedicated case manager.
We'll also make sure Community Work Experience is suitable for you. We may not put you on Community Work Experience if, for example:
- you're already doing job search activities, or
- you're not required to look for work as part of your benefit obligations.
You'll continue to get your full benefit payment.
What you need to do
Community Work Experience means you need to find a position with a community or voluntary organisation for at least 5 hours a week, for 4 weeks.
- You have 2 weeks to find a suitable position at a community or voluntary organisation, and complete and return the 'Community Work Experience' form.
- Then you can start the 4 weeks Community Work Experience.
- Once you finish, you need to get the organisation to sign the form and bring it to your appointment.
You'll continue to get your full benefit payment until you've finished your Community Work Experience. Once you've finished and returned the signed declaration to us, you'll move back to green.
Talk to us straight away if at any point you think you're not going to complete these steps.
Step 1 - Find an organisation and complete/return the form
You have up to 2 weeks to:
- find a suitable position at a community or voluntary organisation, and
- complete and return the 'Community Work Experience' form.
Then we'll contact you to confirm you can start the Community Work Experience.
First, find a suitable position at a community or voluntary organisation
It needs to be a suitable organisation, like a charity, club, or marae. It also needs to be a suitable position, i.e. it's not paid and you're able to complete the activities required of you.
You'll need to contact organisations to see if you can do Community Work Experience there. Make sure you can be there for at least 5 hours a week, for 4 weeks.
You can find a position at more than one community or voluntary organisation if you want to.
Second, complete and return the form
We would have given you a 'Community Work Experience' form when you met with us while you were at orange in the traffic light system.
Once you've found a community or voluntary organisation:
- you need to complete pages 1 and 2 of the form, and
- the organisation needs to complete pages 3 and 4 of the form.
You need to keep pages 5 and 6 of the form.
You need to drop pages 1-4 of this form into one of our offices before the 2 weeks is up. We need to confirm the position is suitable and approve the form before you start at the organisation.
Then we'll confirm you can start
If the position is suitable, we'll contact you straight away to let you know you can start.
We'll also book an appointment for you to come in and see us the day after you're due to finish your Community Work Experience.
Step 2 - Be at the organisation for 4 weeks
You need to be at the organisation for at least 5 hours a week, for 4 weeks. You don't have to be there on weekends or public holidays, but you can if you want to.
The organisation needs to be happy that you've completed the Community Work Experience satisfactorily.
Step 3 - Come to your appointment and bring the signed declaration
On the last day of your Community Work Experience, you need to give the organisation pages 5-6 of the form. They will complete it, sign the declaration and give it back to you. By signing it, they agree you’ve completed the Community Work Experience satisfactorily.
You need to bring pages 5-6 with you to the appointment we booked for you the day after you finish.
Once we've got the declaration, we'll move you back to green.
What happens if you don't complete these steps
Contact us straight away if you think you're not going to complete any of these steps. We'll talk to you about why this is the case.
If you have a good reason for not completing the steps
If you have a good reason, or if the position isn't suitable, we'll reduce your benefit by 50% and arrange for you to do a different activity.
Once you've done the activity, you'll move back to green and get your full payment again.
If you don't have a good reason for not completing the steps
If you don't have a good reason, your benefit will either:
- be paid at 50%, if you have dependent children, or
- stop, if you don't have dependent children.
We'll arrange for you to do a different activity. Once you've done the activity, you'll move back to green and get your full payment again.
We'll stop or reduce your benefit from when you stopped participating with Community Work Experience. This means you may have a debt.