Activities that count as work

What counts as work

Work is either:

• paid work on a day when you have worked for at least one hour
• paid leave, such as sick leave, annual leave and paid maternity leave.

We won’t count unpaid leave, including unpaid maternity leave.

Apart from full time work, you could also do any of the following:

• be a part time, casual or seasonal worker
• be a contractor or self employed
• have multiple employers
• have recently changed jobs or left a job
• have worked overseas.

All of the following also count as work:

• previous periods of Parental Leave Pay or Dad and Partner Pay – each weekday counts as 7.6 hours
• Supported Employment at an Australian Disability Enterprise
• operating a business under the New Business Assistance with New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS)
• jury service
• Defence Reservist work
• periods of workers or accident compensation related to your employment
• periods of JobKeeper Payment paid through your employer
• periods where you got COVID-19 Disaster Payment paid by Services Australia.

JobKeeper Payment and COVID-19 Disaster Payment

For periods of JobKeeper Payment and COVID-19 Disaster Payment, you count whichever of the following is greater:

• 7.6 hours for each weekday in the period, not including weekends
• the number of hours actually worked each day, including weekends
• the number of hours of paid leave each day.

When you claim online you will need to add up your hours of work and any other activities that count as work. This will help us figure out if you meet the work test requirements. Make sure you include any periods of time that you got COVID-19 Disaster Payment when you do this.

You can read more about:

• Supported employment at an Australian Disability Enterprise on the Department of Social Services website
• New Business Assistance with NEIS on the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website.