Claiming family assistance and Parental Leave Pay (PPL) for a newborn child 007-01010100

Encourage customers to make an early claim online. This provides customers with a streamlined experience and is the preferred service offer. Make sure customers have 'active' online account access before directing them to claim online.

If a customer contacts and is deemed unable or unsuitable to complete an online claim, a verbal claim for Paid Parental Leave and family assistance may be appropriate. The Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) workflow can be completed for these customers. See Online and Assisted Customer Claims (ACC) for Family Assistance and Parental Leave Pay (PPL). Other payments have their own procedures for claimants who cannot claim online.

For families in crisis who are experiencing difficulty in understanding or complying with claim requirements, or that require a speedy outcome to meet immediate financial needs, or remote Indigenous customers who have language or literacy barriers affecting their capacity to use forms or online claims, a verbal claim for Paid Parental Leave and family assistance may be appropriate. These customers may also be eligible to submit a verbal signature declaration.

See:

• Helping customers in crisis or financial hardship claim family assistance, or
• Assisting Indigenous customers to claim family assistance and/or Paid Parental Leave scheme payments

Nominees do not have access to lodge online claims (with the exception of claims for Approved Child Care Benefit lump sum claims and Child Care Subsidy (CCS)). Therefore, correspondence nominees are to be offered an Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) if available when they want to apply for a family’s payment on behalf of their principal. If they decline ACC or it is not available, then a paper-based claim form will need to be issued.

Separate procedures apply for customers claiming:

• for a child entering care as part of an adoption process or surrogacy arrangement
• for a child leaving care as part of an adoption process or surrogacy arrangement
• after a stillbirth
• after the death of a child (including soon after birth)

The Newborn Child Declaration (FA081) is not a claim form but can be used to verify the birth of a child when applying for Parental Leave Pay, family assistance, Medicare enrolment and a My Health Record.

Each FA081 has a unique serial number on the back page. The serial number is recorded when the customer lodges the FA081 as proof of birth for a newborn child.

If a pre-birth claim has been lodged and assessed as pending proof of birth, customers can then use the ‘Add newborn child’ service online or 'Add child service' via Express Plus Centrelink mobile app to provide the details of their newborn child and upload the Doctor/Midwife Proof of Birth declaration.

Note: this will also appear as a ‘task' on the landing page on the customer's online account and/or mobile app.

Customers who do not have the FA081 can provide alternate proof of birth (for example birth certificate) to support their claim and/or Medicare enrolment, but child details and a claim must still be provided.

• Helping customers provide proof of a child's birth
• Processing proof of a child's birth

The FA081 can be used across Centrelink and Medicare programmes as proof of birth. Additional information may be required (for example, a claim for payment), but do not ask for another proof of birth document if the FA081 is already receipted on the customer record.

Electronic Proof of Birth (EPoB) provided by participating hospitals as part of the Newborn Enrolment Trial.

Parents must confirm child information through the Add Newborn child service online or via the Add child service in the Express Plus mobile app to utilise the EPoB as valid proof of birth.

Once a customer has confirmed the EPoB information through the Add Newborn child service, these activities will be allocated to pilot staff and the EPoB can be used:

• create a child record
• as proof of birth of a child if the customer has lodged a pre-birth claim for FTB and/or PPL
• complete Medicare enrolment and register child for a My Health Record

See Newborn Enrolment Trial for more information about the trial and how to help customers with their enquiries.

Encourage customers to lodge an early claim for family assistance and/or Parental Leave Pay (PPL) online. Claims can be lodged up to 97 days before the child’s expected date of birth or entrustment to care as part of an adoption process.

Claims can be lodged up to 52 weeks after their child’s date of birth or entrustment to care, but advise customers of the time limits for claiming the maximum PPL period.

For children born or adopted before 1 July 2023:

• For Parental Leave Pay to be paid from the date of birth or entry into care, the customer must lodge an effective claim with their child’s proof of birth/entry into care details within 28 days of the birth/entry into care
• The 28 day period commences the day after the date of birth/entry into care. If the customer lodges their claim or provides the required information after the 28 days, the earliest possible PPL period start date is the date of claim

For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023:

• Where a customer claims Parental Leave Pay proof or birth or entry into care must be provided within 56 days of the child’s birth or entry into care otherwise the claim will be made Not Effective
• If proof or birth or entry into care is provided, a customer can have their PPL days backdated up to 100 days in the past, but not before the child’s date of birth or entry into care

For a family in crisis requiring urgent family assistance claim processing, only certain team leaders or specialists should contact the Team Leader in the local processing team to facilitate urgent processing.

For a family experiencing financial hardship requiring urgent family assistance claim processing, make sure the claim can be actioned before transferring the customer to the Families and Child Care Branch Claim Enquiry line. The Smart Centre Service Officer will action the claim if possible or assess the appropriateness of a priority referral to Families Processing. If not trained in that claim type, the Smart Centre Service Officer will use the Families Claim Escalation - Hardship Fast Note to prioritise the claim. See, Helping customer in crisis or financial hardship claim family assistance.

For all other urgent claim processing, staff must follow protocols for claims under day 35 and over day 35 as set out on the Process page of Child enters customer's care/custody.

Claims lodged by customers who are overseas, or who will be going overseas within 21 days of claiming, are transferred to Families International Claims (FIC) to be finalised. Claims are not to be referred to Centrelink International Services (CIS) for processing.

If the customer is overseas when they claim and the child was born overseas, an FA100 is to be issued if the customer is not claiming online. This includes FTB current customers claiming while overseas. The FA100 can be downloaded online or mailed to the customer overseas.

Various documents can be accepted as proof of birth for children born overseas.

If the customer advises their family has not enrolled in Medicare, the Medicare Safety Net, or My Health Record (where consent is provided), tell them to contact Medicare to arrange this.

If the customer is already enrolled for Medicare but their newborn is not yet enrolled, the child's information provided in the online claim, 'Add newborn child' service or on the completed FA081 can be used to enrol the newborn child. This information will be transferred to Medicare when provided via a Centrelink service.

The child’s Medicare details are used to establish a link with the Australian Immunisation Register to receive their immunisation status for FTB.

PPL includes:

• for children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2024, 110 PPL days
• for children born or adopted between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, 100 PPL days
• for children born or adopted between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2023, 30 Flexible PPL days in addition to a 60 day PPL period

Customers will be assessed for these days when they claim PPL. They can access these later without the need to lodge a new claim for PPL.