Helping customers provide proof of a child's birth for family assistance, Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Paid Parental Leave scheme claims 007-03010030

The FA081 is included in the Parent Pack issued to parents by doctors and midwives after the birth of their child. The back page of the FA081 contains a birth declaration that must be signed by the doctor or midwife. It also contains a serial number that is recorded online by the customer. This serial number is also checked when staff are processing the customer's claim.

The FA081 can be provided by parents to Services Australia to support their claim for the following payments and services:

• FTB, PPL, CCS, DOP or SIFS
• enrolment in Medicare, Medicare Safety Net, the My Health Record system and the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR)

If the customer advises that the hospital had not issued them with a FA081 at the time of birth, refer the case to Level 2 Helpdesk for further advice before finalising the claim.

Staff should contact the hospital to verbally obtain a child's sex if a customer has provided a FA081 that does not specify whether their newborn child is male or female. While the agency generally collects gender, for newborn children the sex is collected at birth with the options of Male or Female. Customers can request a change of gender for a newborn child; see Updating gender details on customer records.

The easiest way for parents to provide proof of birth is to:

• go online to finalise their claim, and
• upload the Doctor/Midwife - Proof of Birth declaration on the back page of the FA081

If completed online, these customers will not need to complete the full FA081.

If the customer:

• has already lodged a pre-birth claim for FTB and/or PPL, they can finalise their claim by:
• accessing Centrelink services from their myGov account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, and
• selecting the Add newborn child option online or Add child option in the mobile app
• has not lodged a claim and wants to do so, they can:
• access Centrelink services from their myGov account, and
• select the Make a claim option

If a customer has no reasonable online access, or wants to enrol in Medicare services only, parents will need to fully complete the FA081 and return the whole form.

If customers are unable to provide the FA081 as proof of birth, to support their claim other acceptable documents can be provided. See Table 2 Item 1 for a detailed list.

Documents provided do not need to be certified originals. Any images or copies of documents provided must be clear and legible.

Electronic Proof of Birth (EPoB) is an approved proof of birth provided by participating hospitals as part of the Newborn Enrolment Trial. EPoB can be used as proof of birth for a newborn child:

• if the customer has lodged a pre-birth claim for FTB and/or PPL /or FTB
• for Medicare enrolment and to register a child for a My Health Record

These customers may not be required to submit any other proof of birth documents.

Note: if the child has not been named when they leave hospital, the customer can provide their child's name by completing the 'Provide the name of your baby' myGov task to enable the information to be used as EPoB.

Information received from the hospital is pre-populated into the 'Add newborn child' online task or the 'Add child' task in the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, where the customer can go online to confirm their child's details.

If the customer participates in the Newborn Enrolment Trial and has lodged a pre-birth claim for FTB and/or PPL, they can finalise their claim by:

• accessing Centrelink services from their myGov account to complete the 'Add newborn child' online task, or
• accessing the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app to complete the 'Add child' task
• the customer will be advised if further proof of birth is required or if they are not required to lodge the FA081

More information about the trial and helping customers with their enquiries can be found at Newborn Enrolment Trial.

To support their claim, acceptable proof of the child's birth can include any of the following:

• Australian Citizenship by descent certificate
• child's passport (Australian or otherwise)
• Department of Home Affairs automatic data link verification
• Birth certificate issued by the government of the country in which the child was born

Note: it is preferred that a child's date of birth is verified using an Australian immigration document compared to a birth certificate issued by the country in which the child is born. If no Australian document can be provided, a foreign birth certificate or other suitable documents that verifies the child's date of birth may be used.

When a document in another language is presented for Identity Confirmation or Proof of Birth purposes, it must be referred to the Language Services for translation. The exception is it is accompanied by another acceptable identity confirmation document. This is required even if the customer provides their own translated version.

If a pre-claim was made online or via FA100

Customers can upload acceptable proof of birth documents using the Upload documents service. The customer will be required to use the 'Add newborn child' service online or the 'Add child' service via the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app to complete their claim. The 'Add newborn child' and 'Add child' services will appear as a 'task' on the landing page in their Centrelink online account and mobile app, provided their pre-birth claim has been assessed. Alternatively, they can lodge a fully completed Newborn Child Declaration form (FA081) or Notes and Claim for Bereavement Payment of Parental Leave Pay and Family Assistance (FA008) with the back page included.

If a pre-claim was not made

Customers can claim online and upload acceptable proof of birth using Upload documents or claim using the Claim for Paid Parental Leave and Family Assistance (FA100) form and include the back page from the FA081.

All images uploaded must be clear and legible and must be provided with the child's details and any required claim information.