Processing proof of a child's birth 007-07030080

Customers may provide proof of birth for a child:

• for a family assistance or Parental Leave Pay claim
• to enrol them in:
• Medicare
• Medicare Safety Net
• My Health Record, and
• Australian Immunisation Register (AIR)

Proof of a child's birth can include:

• Newborn Child Declaration (FA081) from the hospital or midwife
• Electronic Proof of Birth (EPoB) provided by participating hospitals of the Newborn Enrolment Trial
• Other acceptable proof of birth for a child to support a:
• claim for payment or
• Medicare Enrolment Application

A scanned image of just the Doctor/Midwife - Proof of Birth declaration on the back page of the FA081. This documentation must be lodged in conjunction with:

• the 'Add newborn child' service online or the 'Add child' service via the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, or
• a claim for payment with the child's details and birth registration declaration. When lodged with the online claim or 'Add newborn workflow, this is acceptable proof of birth

Customers may use the Upload documents service online to upload proof of birth. If the customer has not used the 'Add newborn child' or 'Add child' service and has lodged a pre-claim the FA081 must be:

• complete,
• signed, and
• uploaded in full

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:

• to 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

Note: in most cases, a child record is automatically created from the EPoB information. The system completes detailed searches before creating child records. Make sure appropriate searches are completed before creating any new child records.

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

Customers who are not using the online channels and are lodging the FA081 must lodge a complete and signed FA081.

Despite what the customer states on the form, Centrelink and Medicare can use this proof of birth. The Resources page contains examples.

A Customer who has previously finalised their pre-birth claim with a status of assessed and pending proof of birth will be able to access these services. The option will be available for a customer who has any of the following service reasons:

• FTB/PND-POB (may not display on the benefit status if FTB/CUR)
• FTB/PND-POP (may not display on the benefit status if FTB/CUR)
• PPL/ASS-PCB

Note: once a customer has submitted their Add Newborn activity and this is processed, in some circumstances their partner's PPL claim will be automatically completed. If this has occurred, the Add Newborn task will no longer display in the partner's online services as no action is required.

Once processing of the pre-birth claim is completed, an Add newborn child task is created in online services and an Add child task in the Express Plus Centrelink mobile App. Where the customer and their partner both lodge pre-birth claims for FTB and/or PPL, they will both receive one of these tasks.

If the customer (or their partner):

• has not yet claimed payments, tell them of their potential entitlement and how to make a claim
• already has lodged a pre-birth claim that has been assessed pending proof of birth, their claim can be finalised if they:
• have provided proof of birth, or
• the 'Add child' service via the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, or
• completed the FA081 in full

When a Newborn Child Declaration (FA081) is scanned to the customer's record, a Social Application (SOA) shell Work Item is generated. This SOA activity contains no information apart from the Customer Reference Number (CRN), personal details and the receipt date (date of claim).

• Relevant information needs to be manually updated within the Work Item using information from the scanned form and associated documentation
• Where a paper FA081 did not create a SOA activity, a SOA shell must be manually created via the Process Direct Landing page

Activities must be coded and processed using the correct date of receipt (DOR). The DOR is the first date the customer's FA081 was received. The DOR can sometimes differ from the 'capture date'. Staff can confirm the correct date in Documents in Process Direct. This screen displays the 'date of receipt' and 'capture date'.

A letter from an authorised party confirming proof of birth for a foster care child is not proof of birth. It can be proof of a change in care.

While the agency generally collects gender, for newborn children sex is collected at birth with the options of Male or Female. Staff can record this on the gender field. Customers can request a change of gender for a newborn child; see Updating gender details on customer records.

Automatic grant of partner’s PPL claim when ‘Add Newborn child’ transaction is submitted

Where two customers:

• are partnered at the date of the Add Newborn is submitted, and
• both have lodged PPL pre-birth claims, including a combined FTB/PPL pre-birth claim, for the same childbirth event who is born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023, and
• both claims are linked with the same Approval ID, and
• the relationships between the claimants is either
• birth mother (BMO) - partner of birth mother (BMP)
• adoptive parent (ADP) - partner of adoptive parent (APP), and
• both PPL claims are ASSessed - Pending proof of birth (PCB), and
• child’s birth has been registered on the Child Registration (CHR) screen, and
• proof of birth/placement is verified on the Change Child (CCH) screen

and

• one customer then provides proof of birth and their PPL claim is granted
• the system will assess the same proof of birth for the partner and grant their PPL claim

If any of the above criteria is not met, automatic processing of the partner’s PPL claim will not occur. The partner’s Add Newborn claim will need to be processed manually.

Automatic processing of the partner’s PPL claim will not occur where:

• the birth mother lodges a PPL claim as a single person, and
• advises after the claim submission date they were partnered to the child’s biological father on a date prior claim submission date

The partner’s Add Newborn claim will need to be processed manually.

As the 'Add Newborn' Service is not a claim, any duplicate 'Add newborn child' service activities completed by the customer for the same child should not be deemed not effective (NEF):

• Complete all updates within the first initial 'Add newborn child' service
• Change the status of any duplicate 'Add Newborn' activities to 'Not Required'

See Process Direct navigation, common screens and functions for more information on changing the status of a work item.

The Newborn Child Declaration (FA081) and Claim for Bereavement Payment (FA008) include a unique serial number. This helps Services Australia to detect potential fraud.

The customer records the serial number online. A data load error occurs if the serial number is:

• duplicate
• invalid, or
• outside issued number range

Check or record the serial number on the Change Child (CCH) screen.

Cross check the serial numbers between the CCH screen and the form. If the number on the CCH screen is:

• incorrect, enter the correct number. If this number does not return an error message, continue processing
• correct but the error remains on the CCH screen, Service Officers cannot process the claim. Refer the Customer Reference Number (CRN) to the Families and Child Care - Business Process Branch. Mark it 'URGENT'

Note: the serial number is not required to be coded on the multiple child CRN created due to a surrogacy/adoption arrangement.