If you need to attend an assessment

Get your medical evidence

You’ll need to give us medical evidence that shows us you have disability, illness or injury so we can do your ESAt. We can accept medical evidence prepared or collated by a:

• medical practitioner
• registered nurse
• nurse practitioner
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner.

The medical evidence must clearly outline:

• your diagnosis
• the name of the medical practitioner who made the diagnosis
• information that explains how your disability, illness or injury affect your capacity to work.

Examples of medical evidence we can use for your ESAt include:

• a verification of medical conditions form
• existing specialist medical reports
• IQ testing reports
• hospital or outpatient reports
• discharge summaries.

The medical evidence for an ESAt may be different to what you need for other medical reviews, exemptions and assessments.

If you’re having trouble getting medical evidence

Call us on your regular payment line or visit a service centre if you:

• need more time to get medical evidence
• cannot get medical evidence.

Submit your medical evidence

You can upload documents in your Centrelink online account. Find out more about how to submit your Centrelink documents online.

You can also give them to us by mail or by visiting a service centre, agent or access point.

You can also mail your documents to:

Get ready for your ESAt

Once we have your medical evidence, we’ll contact you to make an appointment.

We’ll complete your ESAt over the phone, if that’s suitable for you.

If you need an interpreter, we’ll arrange one for you.

You can bring a relative, friend or an advocate. They can help you answer questions and provide support. Make sure you organise this with them before your appointment.

Call us on 1800 110 608 if you:

• need to change or can’t attend your appointment
• have difficulty attending your appointment, for example, because of mobility issues or illness
• have any special needs, for example you prefer an assessor of a specific gender to conduct the assessment.

If you want to find out about employment services in your area

Before your ESAt you can find out more about employment services, including providers in your area and what services they offer.

You can do this by going to:

• Job Access for more information about Inclusive Employment Australia
• Workforce Australia for more information about getting started in employment services.

Attend your ESAt

There are things you need to do to attend your ESAt depending on what type of appointment it is.

If we’ve booked a phone appointment for you

If you’ve subscribed to electronic messaging, we’ll send an SMS to your mobile phone before we call. Make sure the phone details we have for you are up to date, if they aren’t update your contact details.

For your appointment, we’ll call from a private number so check your phone’s settings to make sure you can get calls from unknown numbers.

When we call, we’ll ask you some questions. You’ll need to answer them correctly so we know who you are and that we have the right record.

If you want support during your assessment a relative, friend or advocate can either:

• sit with you while you talk to us
• be called into the phone call.

If they want to be called into the phone call, we can call them and add them to our conversation. For us to be able to do this, you’ll need to give us their phone number when we call you.

Make sure you tell them the appointment time and let them know we may ask them to identify themselves at the appointment.

If we’ve booked a face to face appointment for you

Make sure you bring your ID and any documents you need with you.

If you don’t bring approved photo ID with you, you’ll need to correctly answer some questions to prove who you are.

When you come in for your appointment, we ask that you to arrive at the service centre about 10 minutes early. This gives you time to check in.

Because we’ve booked an appointment for you, you won’t need to wait in the queue.

If a support person is coming to the appointment you, you need to tell them the appointment time and location. Also let them know they may be asked to identify themselves at the appointment.