Accused job services firm eyes NDIS

Max Solutions has a growth strategy targeting the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Language teacher Peta-Joy Williams says she was offered gift vouchers by Max Employment for providing her pay slips. Picture: James Croucher

The multi-billion-dollar global human services firm accused of harassing its clients to claim invalid taxpayer bonuses in job services has a growth strategy targeting the $22 billion National Disability ­Insurance Scheme.

Max Solutions, an Australian division of US company Maximus which also has an offshoot in Saudi Arabia, recently had some of its business share in the $7.3bn job services sector taken away due to poor performance, although the Department of Employment declined to release precise details.

Max Employment, which ­operates under the Solutions umbrella, is the largest single provider of employment services in the country, with government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But the company has failed departmental benchmarks at every one of its 10 sites in the NSW Hunter Valley, all of its seven sites in Queensland’s central Fitzroy ­region and all bar one of its sites in north Perth and southwestern Western Australia.

Max Employment also failed delivery in more than half of its ­locations in the NSW Illawarra-south coast region, inner Melbourne, western Melbourne, half in Gippsland and two-thirds of Mackay and 10 out of 13 locations in Queensland’s Darling Downs.

By contrast, its Darwin services were among the best in the country.

The Australian revealed vast problems with the overall job­active program, which launched in 2015, including bullying and harassment by providers, warnings by government auditors of ­invalid ­financial claims and the fact more than one-third of 1600 employment sites around the country were performing so badly providers should have their business taken away.

In late 2015, Max Solutions, which lists California-based Akbar Piloti as its director — ­acquired disability services company Assessments Australia. In the announcement, Max Solutions said its new company “provides tailored assessment services for the Australian government to individuals seeking financial support for various types of care”.

While this company could help with access to the NDIS — under which it is a registered provider — Max Solutions Pty Ltd is also registered under the disability scheme to provide services described as “home tasks” and “maintain employment”. Max ­Solutions is also registered as a training provider with the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

The Australian can reveal a Maroubra-based Max Employment consultant offered $100 gift vouchers to a former client in return for pay slips from her new employer. In the world of employment services, pay slips serve as proof that the provider has delivered a “job outcome” and the bonuses for such effort in a city are worth up to $11,000.

Peta-Joy Williams, 38, is a language teacher who was in between jobs over the last Christmas school holidays when she was required to attend the job agency for “support”, which she says never eventuated. “I asked him why he wanted my pay slips and he said ‘look, I’ll level with you, we get funding for the people we help support’,” she told The Australian.

“I told him they had never done anything to support me.”

The consultant then sweetened the deal and offered Ms Williams a $100 gift voucher.

“I was working three jobs at the time, as a TAFE teacher in the ­Wiradjuri language, two days in schools and as a cultural mentor at a university,” she said.

“I thought, what the hell, so I said yes. Then he rang back a few weeks later and asked for a more comprehensive pay slip because the one I had given him wasn’t detailed enough and offered me ­another $100 voucher.”

Max Employment had more than three days to respond to a request for comment but complained about the “short” timeframe, adding the Department of Employment must approve its responses.

“Max Employment takes pride in consistently delivering high-quality employment services to thousands of Australians each year in more than 250 locations across the nation,” a spokesman said.