Eligibility for Newborn Supplement (NBS) and Newborn Upfront Payment (NBU) 007-07040020

General eligibility criteria:

• Meet FTB eligibility and claim requirements in relation to the child
• Be entitled to FTB Part A at a rate greater than nil (legislative rate of FTB Part A). Note: NBS is added to the customer's maximum FTB Part A rate before the Part A income test is applied. This means that for the period NBS is paid (up to 13 weeks) it increases the income limit at which their FTB Part A rate reduces to nil
• Not be paid Parental Leave Pay (PPL) for the same child

For payment of arrears after a reassessment, see Table 2, Item 4.

Does the customer meet the general eligibility criteria?

• Yes:
• Parents, go to Step 2
• Non-parents, go to Step 3
• As part of an adoption, go to Step 4
• No, customer is not eligible for NBS/NBU. Procedure ends here

Parents are eligible for NBS for their child if:

• The child is under 1 year of age
• They meet birth registration requirements

If the customer is notifying the birth has been registered after the FTB Claim has been finalised, see Table 2, Item 1.

Change of care/shared care

If one parent receives NBS and NBU for a child, the other parent who gains care of the child is entitled to NBS and NBU for the child for 91 days if:

• the parents of the child have not been partnered at any stage during that NBS and NBU period, and
• other eligibility criteria are met

For information on shared care, see Table 2, Item 2.

Does the customer meet the parent eligibility criteria?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, customer is not eligible for NBS/NBU. Procedure ends here

A non-parent (for example, foster carer, grandparent) is eligible for NBS for a child if neither they (nor their partner) is the child's parent and:

• the child is under 1 year of age
• the child remains their FTB child for 13 continuous weeks from the date the customer becomes eligible for NBS

Where a child has entered care as part of a surrogacy arrangement, the customer will be assessed for NBS based on the entrusted to care conditions.

If the length of the care arrangement is not known, the customer can elect for the NBS/NBU to be paid after the 13 continuous weeks of care. See Table 2, Item 3.

Does the customer meet the non-parent eligibility criteria?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, customer is not eligible for NBS/NBU. Procedure ends here

A person is eligible for NBS if a child is entrusted to the customer's care as part of an adoption process if:

• the child (of any FTB child age) has been entrusted to their care by an authorised party as part of an adoption process
• the customer is eligible for FTB Part A within 12 months of the date the child was entrusted to their care, and

Does the customer meet the adoption eligibility criteria?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, customer is not eligible for NBS/NBU. Procedure ends here

NBS is payable for up to 13 weeks (91 days) starting from the first day of eligibility. As a component of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A, NBS eligibility is calculated daily. It is only paid for those days in the 13 weeks that all eligibility requirements are met.

If a customer is eligible for NBS, an NBU is payable in relation to the first day of NBS eligibility, however some exceptions do apply. See the Resources page for examples.

Does the customer have an FTB Part A payment choice?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, go to Step 7

Base rate

Customers who are only entitled to FTB Part A base rate or who choose to receive base rate will be paid the NBS with their FTB instalment. NBU will also be paid.

Nil rate

Customers who choose to receive nil rate FTB Part A during the year will receive their NBS and NBU when FTB reconciliation occurs after the end of the financial year.

Change of choice

If the customer changes or cancels their payment choice, payment of NBS/NBU depends on when their first day of NBS eligibility occurred.

See the Resources page for examples.

Go to Step 7.

A reduced rate of NBS for second or subsequent children will apply.

Customers will receive the reduced rate of payment where the second or subsequent child has the same relationship type as previous children in the family. There are 3 relationship types considered when determining the rate:

• birth mother
• adoption
• entrusted into care

Birth parents of newborn children

Where a parent is claiming for their newborn child, the rate of NBS is based on whether the child is the birth mother's first or subsequent biological child. If the birth mother has had previous birth children, NBS will be paid at the reduced rate. A partner's child(ren) from a previous relationship would not impact the rate.

Adoptions

Where a child of any age (FTB eligible) is entrusted to the primary care of a person as part of the process of adoption, and the child is the second or subsequent child to be entrusted to the primary care of the family as part of an adoption process, the customer would receive the lower rate of NBS.

Child entrusted to care

Where a newborn child is entrusted to the primary care of another person (such as a foster carer) before the child is aged one, the rate paid would depend on the circumstances of the new carer, and whether other children aged under 1 had previously been entrusted to their care. Previously adopted or biological children would not impact the customer's NBS rate.

Multiple births/entry into care

Children born as part of a multiple birth (for example, twins) and children entrusted aged under 1 or children entering care as part of the same adoption process, will be paid at the higher NBS rate per child regardless of the number of other children in the family.

See the Resources page for the NBS/NBU maximum rate matrix and NBS maximum rate map for information on NBS rates.

Procedure ends here.

These requirements only apply to the natural parents of a newborn child. They do not apply to children born overseas.

Parents must notify Services Australia that they have applied to register the child's birth with the state or territory births registry. Customers may notify this verbally.

If the customer notifies that the birth has been registered after the FTB claim has been finalised, in Customer First:

• go to the CHS screen and select the relevant child with an ‘S’
• type CCH in the next field
• on the CCH screen code 'Y'es in the birth registration field
• enter the source and the receipt date
• navigate to the AR screen and check the Payment Summary to ensure NBS/NBU is being paid and if the results are correct, the activity can be finalised

To receive NBS/NBU for a child who dies shortly after birth, parents are required to satisfy birth registration requirements.

Time limit for notification

Parents must notify the agency by 30 June of the financial year following the financial year that includes the last day on which the NBS can be paid for the child.

Example: for a child born on 1 May 2024 where the customer is eligible for NBS from that date, the last day NBS can be paid is 30 July 2024. As the last NBS day is in the 2024-25 financial year, the customer must notify by 30 June 2026.

The shared care percentage does not affect the NBS rate.

For example:

• If a shared care arrangement exists before the start of the NBS eligibility period, each person caring for the child may be eligible for the full amount of NBS and NBU if they each meet all eligibility criteria
• If a couple separate before the end of the NBS period and a shared care arrangement begins, each person may be entitled to NBS for the number of days remaining in the NBS period. The ex-partner would not be entitled to NBU as this was paid while they were a couple

See the Resources page for examples.

Eligibility is assessed according to each customer's circumstances. Customers must have at least 35% actual care of the child. See Assessment of shared care arrangements for FTB).

Note: a system issue has been identified that impacts a current FTB customer and any NBS/NBU already paid to them, if a separation is coded within the customer's now ex-partner's FTB new claim activity.

To avoid these issues, when Service Officers process claims that include shared care in respect of any potential NBS child, all coding to separate the current FTB customer must be finalised in a separate activity on the current FTB customer's record before the ex-partner's FTB claim can be assessed with all relevant shared care coding.

A non-parent (for example, foster carer and grandparent) may be eligible for NBS for a child if neither they (nor their partner) is the child's parent. The questions on the NBSQ/!NBSQ page will vary depending on the customer/child relationship coded on the Child Relationships (CHRE/!CHRE) page.

For a non-parent:

• Is this child entrusted to care as part of a multiple entrustment to care event?
• Has this customer previously had a child entrusted to care?
• Has this child entered your, and/or your partner’s care as part of a surrogacy arrangement?
• Will you or did you have this child in your care for at least 13 consecutive weeks?
• Are you or your partner claiming or going to claim PPL?

Depending on the response to 'Will you or did you have this child in your care for at least 13 consecutive weeks?' the result will be:

• Yes, entitlement to NBS/NBU will be assessed as part of their claim
• No, NBU/NBS will not be paid. If the child does remain in care, the customer would need to contact to advise this so that the response could be updated from 'No' to 'Yes' to assess NBU/NBS
• Unsure, NBU/NBS will not be paid, instead an automatic Future Activity List (FAL) review (I703FY) will be set to recheck eligibility 21 days after the 13 continuous weeks (21 + 91 = 112 days) from the date the child entered care. If the child has remained in care when the review matures, NBU/NBS will be automatically assessed

If the customer indicates they or their partner intend to claim Parental Leave Paid (PPL) for this same child, NBS/NBU will not be paid with the claim for FTB. If PPL is not payable, the customer may be eligible for NBS/NBU.

In cases where an activity causes a Newborn Upfront Payment (NBU) debt as NBU eligibility is lost, for example FTB Part A cancelling, and a subsequent activity is paying arrears for NBU, the system will automatically offset these arrears with the debt. To allow the automated withholdings process to offset arrears do not suppress the arrears and do not code the FTB Newborn Manual Assessment and Decision (FMAD) screen.

Withholdings will be automatically applied from the NBU payment to the outstanding amount of an existing NBU debt. This will not occur until the payment strip has been run.

This offsetting also occurs where multiple activities are processed in the one day, the first paying arrears of NBU and then a subsequent activity causing a loss of eligibility resulting in a debt. If these activities are on the same day, the offset will occur so that a payment is not issued and then subsequently raise a debt on the same day.

If an NBU debt has been paid in full and a reassessment is made to re-grant NBU, the system will pay this amount to the recipient, as the previous debt had been paid no offsetting will need to occur.