Assessing family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme claims 007-07030000

This document outlines the assessment and coding of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Parental Leave Pay (PPL) claims. A claim for FTB can include assessment of Newborn Supplement (NBS) and Newborn Upfront Payment (NBU) for a newborn or adopted child if the customer is not claiming PPL or is not eligible for PPL.

Online or paper claim

Claims for FTB and PPL should be made online, or by lodging the appropriate paper claim form. Extra assistance may be available to help remote Indigenous customers claiming FTB/PPL.

Note: claims should always be coded and processed using the correct date of receipt. This date can sometimes differ from the 'capture date' used to confirm the date of a claim which has been scanned.

General information about claims

Customers may contact about a claim that was previously deemed not effective.

Claims for PPL and FTB can be made at the same time. A single online claim can be made to claim FTB for the current and previous financial years.

Customers can claim PPL and FTB, or just FTB and have their entitlement to NBS and NBU automatically assessed with their FTB claim. Customers may change their initial claim choice, PPL can be claimed even after NBS has been paid with FTB.

For children born or entering care on or after 1 October 2016, PPL is counted as ordinary income for calculating the rate of income support payments.

Claims for newborn children who have not yet been named are to be accepted, but may indicate that the customer has not applied to register the child's birth. When linking the child and customer records the child's given name is to be listed as 'Newborn' and a chosen name followed up.

Viewing and processing claims

Service Officers can view claims in both Process Direct and Customer First.

Process Direct

View and process claims via Inbox. See Process Direct navigation, common screens and functions.

Customer First

View and process claims via Workspace using Search Online Claims under the Claims Online heading.

Potential entitlement to another Centrelink payment

If potential entitlement to another Centrelink payment (for example, Parenting Payment) is determined, discuss in person or send a Q999 letter in Customer First. The Resources page contains suggested Q999 text.
If a potential entitlement to ABSTUDY School Term Allowance is identified:

transfer the customer to ABSTUDY to make a claim over the phone (the Resources page contains a link to the Services Australia website), or
send a Q999 letter in Customer First