Community services worker claim

Eligibility

To be eligible to claim portable long service benefits community services workers must:

• have completed 7 years of recognised service under the Scheme (recognised service is the total time a worker has worked in an industry covered by the Scheme).
• not already be entitled to traditional long service leave with their employer.

Community service workers who are entitled to traditional long service leave with their employer (including where entitlements are specified in an enterprise agreement, industry award, or contract of employment) are not eligible to claim portable long service benefits. They must take long service leave with their employer.

Workers in community services who are not yet entitled to traditional long service leave may consider the advantages of waiting to claim long service benefits with their employer, including the payment of superannuation during your leave period.

If you have already taken traditional long service leave from your employer, this may reduce the amount of portable long service benefits available for you to claim.

Check your recognised service balance

You can view your recognised service balance on the worker portal.

Your recognised service balance is updated on the worker portal after your employer sends us your hours and ordinary pay each quarter (every 3 months). For example, if you worked in the April to June quarter, your employer has until 31 July to send us your records in their quarterly return. Processing the quarterly return generally takes us about 7 days.

View the quarterly return due dates.

You won’t be able to claim your portable long service benefits until your recognised service balance reaches 7 years on the worker portal.

How to claim

Eligible workers claim their portable long service benefits on the worker portal.

You should check the worker portal to see if your service has been recorded correctly by your employer and that your contact details are up to date.

To make a claim:

1. Log in to the worker portal
2. Click on 'Claims' in the menu
3. If you are eligible, you will see a 'New claim' button in the top right corner of the screen.

You can follow our step-by-step guide: How to claim guide: Community services workers.

Claim processing

We will check your work history when we receive your claim. Sometimes we contact you and/or your employer if we need more information.

Claims are usually processed within 3 weeks. It may take longer if we need more information or have to check details with your employer.

Some other claims can take longer to process. For example, if you are retiring or leaving the industry.

Entitlement

Eligible community services workers are entitled to 1 week of portable long service benefits for every 60 weeks of recorded work under the Scheme.

Your entitlement balance will be available on the worker portal once you become eligible to claim.

Community services workers are paid their portable long service entitlement as a cash benefit. You do not need to take leave from your employer to receive the payment.

Claim amount paid

Your portable long service payment is calculated based on the period of leave you are claiming and your ordinary pay at the time you apply for payment.

Portable long service benefit payments do not include superannuation.

Payment

Workers in community services are paid their claim as a cash benefit into a nominated bank account.

Tax

Your portable long service leave payment will be taxed at the applicable tax rate in accordance with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) guidelines. For further advice on tax rates, contact the ATO.

The portable long service leave payment is net of tax.

Tax will not be withheld from claim payments made on the death of a worker.

Community services worker claim types

Further information