EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of Stuart Robert, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
Social Security Act 1991
Social Security (Self-Employment Assistance) Determination 2022.
AUTHORITY
The Social Security (Self-Employment Assistance) Determination 2022 (the Determination) is made under subsection 1062A(2) of the Social Security Act 1991.
PURPOSE AND OPERATION
Subsection 1062A(1) of the Social Security Act 1991 enables the Employment Secretary to, on behalf of the Commonwealth, make, vary or administer an arrangement for the making payments in relation to a range of purposes listed in that provision or in relation to an activity prescribed in a legislative instrument for the purposes of paragraph 1062A(1)(l).
Subsection 1062A(2) empowers the Employment Minister to determine an activity for the purpose of paragraph (1)(l) by legislative instrument. The effect of the Determination will be to enable the Employment Secretary to make, vary and administer arrangements for the purposes of the Self-Employment Assistance program, particularly contracts with providers of that program.
Self-Employment Assistance
From 1 July 2022, two Australian Government programs will deliver tailored and flexible
self-employment services delivered across 51 Employment regions. From 1 July 2022, the Self-Employment Assistance program will replace two existing programs - New Business Assistance with the NEIS and Exploring Being My Own Boss Workshops – while the Entrepreneurship Facilitator Program will continue to deliver services in 23 locations around Australia.
Self-Employment Assistance will replace the current New Business Assistance with NEIS program in all 51 Employment Regions around Australia.[1]
Self-Employment Assistance providers will deliver a broad range of services for current and aspiring business owners to:
- increase awareness of opportunities for self-employment by promoting small business ownership as a path to financial independence
- achieve labour market outcomes by supporting unemployed and under-employed Australians to become self-employed business owners through the provision of small business training, mentoring and advice, and
- help existing micro-business owners to operate businesses that are commercially viable.
Self-Employment Assistance will provide business mentoring and coaching, small business training and financial support to help people to create and maintain successful self-employment.
Individuals currently eligible for NEIS will be able to access support under the new arrangements, and they will receive greater flexibility in choosing and accessing the support that best suits their circumstances.
Participants will be able to choose from a range of services, including exploring self-employment workshops, business planning, business advice and business ‘health checks’, as well as 12 months of small business coaching to start a business or run an existing business. Where participants wish to access multiple services within the program, they will be able to choose the order in which they access those services.
There will be up to 4 Self-Employment Assistance providers who deliver tailored services in each Employment Region.
Self-Employment Assistance providers will deliver promotional activities in local communities to promote the program and self-employment more broadly. Providers will:
- have strong links to their local small business ecosystem(s)
- understand their local labour market(s) and industry needs, and
- deliver a program that enables participants to choose the amount of training, business advice and mentoring assistance they need to support their small business needs.
Self-Employment Assistance providers will work closely with Entrepreneurship Facilitators (where locations intersect) to ensure their participants also benefit from the networking opportunities, events and workshops offered by this program.
The key features of Self-Employment Assistance will include:
- flexible support that allows participants to choose the elements of the services that best fit their needs,
- access to financial support through reimbursement of eligible business costs to help participants in Small Business Coaching to focus on developing their business from day one,
- optional accredited small business training, for people who need additional support for their small business,
- a provider fee structure that reflects when services are delivered by providers and empowers people to access the elements of the service most relevant to their needs,
- a strong collaborative approach that ensures providers focus on increased stakeholder engagement and local relationships within their contracted Employment Regions and Locations.
Self-Employment Assistance workshops will assist people to generate business ideas if they do not already have one and replaces the current ‘Exploring Being My Own Boss’ workshops available in the New Business Assistance with NEIS program. Providers will use their local knowledge to help participants. Self-Employment Assistance will help interested people without a business idea to better understand self-employment and generate or validate business ideas. Providers will use their local knowledge of industry gaps and the small business ecosystem to help participants generate business ideas. Providers will deliver all elements of the program flexibly using face-to-face, digital, and mixed-mode delivery, as appropriate.
Participants will continue to be able to receive an allowance and rental assistance, if eligible, and can, in some circumstances, also access help to cover $300 worth of business start-up costs, such as business insurance.
Anyone with capacity to start or run a small business and who meet the other eligibility criteria will be eligible for support. Existing micro-business owners must be at risk of not remaining commercially viable to be eligible.
REGULATORY IMPACT
The instrument is not regulatory in nature, will not impact business activity, and will have no, or minimal compliance costs or competition impact. The Office of Best Practice Regulation considers the proposal is unlikely to have a more than minor regulatory impact, and therefore the preparation of a Regulation Impact Statement is not required (OBPR22‑020790).
COMMENCEMENT
This instrument will commence on the later of either immediately after commencement of Schedule 2 to the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Act 2022, which inserts a new Chapter 2D (containing section 1062A) into the Social Security Act 1991, or the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislation.
CONSULTATION
On 5 October 2021, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the department) released the Self-Employment Services 2022–27 Consultation Paper seeking feedback from a broad range of stakeholders on the proposed delivery of Self-Employment Assistance (replacing the New Business Assistance with NEIS program) and the Entrepreneurship Facilitator Program. The department received a total of 46 written responses from stakeholders, including current NEIS providers, Entrepreneurship Facilitators, prospective Self-Employment Assistance providers, self-employment and employment services peak bodies, a university, stakeholders from the not-for-profit sector, as well as other individuals and organisations with an interest in self-employment services.
Nineteen stakeholders agreed to have their responses published. The National NEIS Association (NNA), the peak body representing the majority of current NEIS providers, provided a written response to the Self-Employment Services 2022–27 Consultation Paper. These responses are available for download at tenders.employment.gov.au.
STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Social Security (Self-Employment Assistance) Determination 2022
The Social Security (Self-Employment Assistance) Determination 2022 (the Instrument) is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
From 1 July 2022, the Self-Employment Assistance program will replace two existing programs – New Business Assistance with NEIS and Exploring Being My Own Boss Workshops[2]. Self-Employment Assistance providers will deliver a broad range of services for current and aspiring business owners, including providing business mentoring and coaching, small business training and financial support to help people to create and maintain successful self-employment.
Anyone with capacity to start or run a small business and who meet the other eligibility criteria will be eligible for support. Existing micro-business owners must be at risk of not remaining commercially viable to be eligible.
Human rights implications
The Instrument engages the following rights:
- the right to work – Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), read with Article 2; Article 1 of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention concerning Employment Policy (ILO Convention 122).
- The right to education and vocational training – Articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention concerning Vocational Guidance and Vocational Training in the Development of Human Resources (ILO Convention 142)
Right to work
Article 2(1) of the ICESCR recognises that “each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures”.
Article 6(1) of the ICESCR recognises the right to work, including the right of everyone to the opportunity “to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts.” Article 6(2) provides that the States Parties recognise the right to work and will take appropriate steps to achieve the realisation of this right including through the promotion of ‘full and productive employment including through “technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques…”.
Article 1 of the ILO Convention 122 provides that “each Member shall declare and pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment.” Article 2 provides that each Member shall determine the measures for achieving the objectives specified in Article 1. This includes the establishment of programs for the application of these measures.
Self-Employment Assistance promotes the right to work by improving and expanding available support structures for small businesses. By supporting unemployed and underemployed Australians to become small business owners, and helping existing micro-business owners to increase their commercial viability, the measure will leverage provider’s local knowledge and insight to promote self-employment more broadly in the community. The measure will not only introduce employment opportunities for a particular participant but also employment opportunities more broadly through the creation of new businesses. This promotes the right to work in a sustainable and dynamic way with widespread benefit.
Self-Employment Assistance also promotes participants’ access to full, productive and freely chosen employment by helping address the barriers to access. By facilitating business ideas, providing ongoing mentoring and support and facilitating exploration of the potential of small business ownership, employment opportunities for the participant and the community are both increased.
A choice of services including workshops, small business training, business plan assistance and mentoring will allow participants to tailor the program to their individual needs, promoting their ability to work for themselves in financially viable businesses. The wide opportunities associated with self-employment and the choice and flexibility of the program will assist in increasing participant confidence. The services will provide participants with the tools to strengthen and broaden their skill sets and capabilities, and have both the tools and guidance to turn opportunity into reality.
Self-Employment Assistance will expand existing services to a wider range of prospective small-business owners and also to micro-business owners, and improve their visibility, giving more participants the capacity to gain and maintain meaningful work. Providers will promote self-employment in the local small-business ecosystem and help participants generate business ideas. Collaboration between providers and Entrepreneurship Facilitators will ensure that participants are supported by a variety of stakeholders as they create and/or grow commercially viable businesses.
Right to education and vocational training
Article 1(1) of the ILO Convention 142 provides that “each Member shall adopt and develop comprehensive and co-ordinated policies and programmes of vocational guidance and vocational training, closely linked with employment, in particular through public employment services.”
Article 1(2) requires the policies and programs adopted for the purposes of Article 1(1) to take due account of matters including “employment needs, opportunities and problems, both regional and national” (Article 1(2)(a)).
Article 2 provides that “each Member shall establish and develop open, flexible and complementary systems of general, technical and vocational education, educational and vocational guidance and vocational training, whether these activities take place within the system of formal education or outside it.”
Article 3 provides that each member shall “gradually extend its systems of vocational guidance, including continuing employment information, with a view to ensuring that comprehensive information and the broadest possible guidance are available to all children, young persons and adults, including appropriate programmes for all handicapped and disabled persons”. This information and guidance shall cover the choice of an occupation, vocational training and employment prospects.
Article 4 obliges each Member to “gradually extend, adapt and harmonise its vocational training systems to meet the needs for vocational training throughout life of both young persons and adults in all sectors of the economy and branches of economic activity and at all levels of skill and responsibility.”
Self-Employment Assistance promotes the right to education and vocational training by providing interested individuals and job ready job seekers with access to a variety of programs including accredited courses and tailored learning modules – both face to face and online. For job seekers, this allows them to explore self-employment opportunities while completing their participation requirements such as searching for employment.
Starting a new business can be a daunting proposition and difficult to navigate without the right support; this is often a significant barrier. However, with the right education and training, coupled with ongoing assistance and support, small business and entrepreneurship activities can have a wide range of benefits. Self-Employment Assistance offers these tools through a wide range of workshops, small business training, small business coaching and business health checks. Participants are supported right from the generation of small business ideas and have continued support and guidance throughout the journey. Individuals are provided with a supportive environment to explore whether self-employment is right for them, if so, appropriate training (though accredited and non-accredited programs) to equip participants with the right training to kickstart their small business or other self-employment endeavour.
The flexibility of mixed-mode delivery and flexibility to choose different services to suit a participant at whatever stage they are at, encourages the right to education and maximises the relevance of training. Finally, increased collaboration between the department, Self-Employment Assistance providers and Entrepreneurship Facilitators will promote participants’ access to the most appropriate training for their needs.
Conclusion
The Instrument is compatible with human rights because it promotes the right to work under the ICESCR and the ILO Convention 122, as well as the right to vocational guidance and vocational training under the ILO Convention 142.
The Hon. Stuart Robert MP
Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
SOCIAL SECURITY (SELF-EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) DETERMINATION 2022
EXPLANATION OF PROVISIONS
Section 1: Name
- This is a formal provision specifying the name of the instrument.
Section 2: Commencement
2. This section provides that the instrument will commence on the later of either the commencement of Schedule 2 to the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Act 2022 or the day after its registration on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Section 3: Authority
3. This section provides that the instrument is made under subsection 1062A(2) of the Social Security Act 1991.
Section 4: Activity
4. Section 4 determines the Self-Employment Assistance program as an activity for the purposes of paragraph 1062A(1)(l) of the Social Security Act 1991. The effect of the section will be to enable the Employment Secretary to make, vary and administer arrangements for the purposes of the Self-Employment Assistance program, particularly contracts with providers of that program.
[1] New Business Assistance with NEIS will continue to be delivered on Norfolk Island until 30 June 2023. Future arrangements for Australian Government self-employment services on Norfolk Island beyond 30 June 2023 will be considered in due course.
[2] New Business Assistance with NEIS will continue to be delivered on Norfolk Island until 30 June 2023. Future arrangements for Australian Government self-employment services on Norfolk Island beyond 30 June 2023 will be considered in due course.