Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) 007-05000000

DAP is paid under the Paid Parental Leave scheme. It is provided to the dad or partner caring for a child born or adopted on or after 1 January 2013 and before 1 July 2023.

The dad or partner is required to lodge a claim and be assessed as meeting the eligibility criteria.

The payment is taxable and paid as a lump sum at the national minimum wage for a maximum of 2 weeks. DAP payments are delivered by Services Australia.

The payment may need to be reassessed when there is a change of circumstances such as change of care or changes to their income, work or paid leave. DAP may also be affected when a customer travels overseas.

For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023, DAP ends. The 2 weeks (10 payable days) is rolled into PPL. See Eligibility for Paid Parental Leave (PPL) for children born or entering care on or after 1 July 2023.

Customers can still submit a claim for DAP if their child's expected date of birth or adoption is on or after 1 July 2023. However, Service Officers should encourage customers to claim after their child is born or enters their care.

If the customer submits a DAP pre-claim and the child's actual date of birth or adoption is:

• before 1 July 2023, the agency processes the DAP claim as usual once the customer gives proof of birth or entry to care
• on or after 1 July 2023, the agency rejects the DAP claim once the customer gives proof of birth or entry to care. The rejection letter invites the customer to claim PPL

COVID-19 Disaster Payment (paid by Services Australia on or after 3 June 2021)

Customers who received a COVID-19 Disaster Payment (paid by Services Australia on or after 3 June 2021) during their 10 month qualifying period and lodged their DAP claim on or after 4 September 2021, can include their COVID-19 Disaster Payments as qualifying work.

Customers who performed at least 1 hour of paid work or paid leave (including weekends) and received COVID-19 Disaster Payment can count whichever 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

Special circumstances

For DAP claims made on or after 4 September 2021, customers who do not meet the work test may qualify for an exception if:

• they experienced special circumstances within their work test period, and
• this affected their ability to perform paid work

An exception to the work test may be applied if:

• special circumstances existed, and
• the customer would have met the work test if the special circumstances did not exist

The special circumstance exception reasons include:

• severe medical condition or caring for a close family member who is affected by a severe medical condition
• natural disaster declared by the Commonwealth, a State or Territory
• family and domestic violence

The customer must provide evidence to support their claim for special circumstances. This includes both:

• evidence of the special circumstance (see additional information below if family and domestic violence), and
• evidence of employment (employee or self employed)

Severe medical condition

To meet this exception either the customer was:

• affected by a severe medical condition that prevented them from performing paid work, or
• caring for a close family member who was affected by a severe medical condition and providing this care prevented them from performing paid work

Severe medical condition includes severe illness and severe injury

Note: this exception, a close family member is defined as;

• the customer’s partner, or
• the customer’s child (natural/adoptive or step-child), or,
• the customer’s parent (natural/adoptive or step-parent), or
• the customer’s sibling or step-sibling, or
• the parent (natural/adoptive or step -parent) of the customer’s partner, or
• a person the customer has legal custody or guardianship of, (for example a foster child)

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, 'family member' includes cultural kinship relationships.

Customers are required to provide:

• evidence of the severe medical condition they or their family member were affected by, and
• evidence that they would have otherwise met the work test had it not been for the severe medical condition

Natural disaster

To meet this exception the customer must have been severely affected by a natural disaster during their work test period and this prevented them from performing paid work. The natural disaster must have been declared by either the:

• Commonwealth or a State or Territory, or
• Commonwealth, State or Territory authority responsible for managing responses to natural disasters

Customers are required to provide:

• evidence that they were severely impacted by the natural disaster, and
• evidence that they would have otherwise met the work test had it not been for the disaster

Family and domestic violence

To meet this exception the customer:

• must have experienced, or was dealing with the impact of family and domestic violence during their work test period, and
• this prevented the customer from performing paid work

Family and domestic violence claims must be referred to a social worker who will assess whether family and domestic violence affected the customer’s ability to work during their work test period. The social worker may contact the customer to discuss the circumstances over the phone. If there is enough evidence already on the customer’s record, the social worker can complete a file assessment.

The customer will be requested in the claim to provide evidence to confirm the family and domestic violence, but if it is not provided, the social worker will determine:

• if there is already enough evidence on the customer’s record, or
• if further evidence is required

Service Officers must not request evidence of the family and domestic violence. See Assessing Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) claims.

The customer will also be required to provide evidence from their employer confirming that the customer would have been employed during the work test period. The employer may not know why the customer was unable to work and the customer is not expected to divulge this information to their employer. See Paid Parental Leave Work Test.

From 1 January 2020, there were several changes to DAP that included the following.

DAP work test for children born or adopted on or after 1 January 2020

The allowable gap between consecutive work days was increased from 8 to 12 weeks. In the 392 day work test period, a customer must not have a gap of more than 12 weeks during their 295 day qualifying period. See Paid Parental Leave scheme Work Test.

Return to work exceptions for customer who returned to work on or after 12 March 2020

There are several reasons a customer can return to work/perform work and continue to receive PPL. Allowable reasons for DAP include:

• an Australian Defence Force (ADF) member or law enforcement officer who is compulsorily recalled to duty
• complying with a summons or other compulsory process to give evidence, information or produce documents. This does not include jury duty
• health professionals, emergency services or essential workers who have returned to work in response to a state, territory or national emergency (effective from 12 March 2020 onwards)
• care of the child was lost without legal authority
• child bereavement where the DAP child was stillborn or died

If a customer returns to work for an allowable reason, an exception is recorded and their return to work is disregarded. See Eligibility for Dad and Partner Pay (DAP).

Extended Work Test period for children born or adopted between 22 March 2020 and 31 March 2021 (inclusive)

The extended work test applies to customers who:

• do not meet the existing PPL scheme work test because they stopped work, or had their work hours reduced due to COVID-19, and
• have a child with a date of birth or adoption between 22 March 2020 and 31 March 2021

These customers will have their work test period increased from 392 days to 600 days. During their 600 day work test period the customer must have a 295 day qualifying period where they did not have a 12 week gap between consecutive work days and performed at least 330 hours of qualifying work within the 295 day qualifying period.

Note: although the customer can have a gap of more than 12 weeks between work days during the 600 day work test period, they cannot have this gap during their 295 day qualifying period.

This only applies to customers who cannot meet the usual PPL or DAP work test and do not have an exemption from the work test, such as premature birth. See Paid Parental Leave scheme Work Test.